A few years ago, a group of researchers published a wonderful editorial piece in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Titled It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity: you cannot outrun a bad diet, the article stirred the pot and highlighted important data on weight loss. The literature highlighted how many sports medicine, physio, and personal training professional are biased to exercise as the primary mode for weight loss. Furthermore, the authors came out and boldly stated that physical activity does not promote weight loss. That’s right, physical activity does not promote weight loss.
I have spent most of my adult life overweight. I have also been active most of my life. In fact, I have run half marathons and A Super Spartan Race (10 miles through the mud with 28 obstacles) while being 40 pounds overweight with a BMI that classified me as obese. Still, I was not sick, and I did not consider myself fat. I was lying to myself. It’s actually difficult to look at these pictures, not because I am not proud that I finished, because I am. But, I had no business running that race. It is because of moments like this that the they have coined the phrase, “but did you die?” Thankfully, I did not die, and thankfully I have learned that you don’t have to be sick to be unhealthy.
I used to think that I could exercise my way out of my bad habits, but you can’t outrun your fork. The harder I tried, the more I hurt myself. Torn meniscus, torn Achilles’ tendon, too many aches and pains to list.
A year and a half ago, I turned myself in to be coached towards optimal health and it has been the best decision I have ever made. I’m so thankful for our program that helped me dial in my nutrition and taught me healthy habits. I feel better now than any time I can remember, and I’m ready to take on fresh adventures. If you are frustrated because no matter how much exercise you do, you still can’t get where you want to be. If you are tired of being overweight and unhealthy and you are ready to be coached towards optimal health. Reach out, I’d be honored to help you!
A lot of fat people claim they don’t have any ailments—so that must mean they’re perfectly healthy and in shape!—or that you can still be obese but be fit and hold the same risk for chronic diseases as healthy-weight people. But recent research from the University of Birmingham in the U.K. found that obese people who seem to be healthy on paper have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.
The study, which was presented at the European Congress on Obesity, looked at the health records of around 3.5 million people in the U.K. from 1995 to 2015 who didn’t have heart disease at the start of the survey, and then grouped them according to BMI and if they had diabetes, high blood pressure, or blood fat levels out of the ordinary. Those subjects who had a high BMI but none of the other aliments were classified as the “metabolically healthy obese,” but they were shown to be 50% more likely to have heart disease, 7% more likely to have a stroke or heart attack, and 11% more at risk to develop poor circulation to the limbs.
“This is the largest prospective study of the association between metabolically health obesity and cardiovascular disease events,” said study co-author Rishi Caleyachetty, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the university. “The priority of health professionals should be to promote and facilitate weight loss among obese persons, regardless of the presence or absence of metabolic abnormalities. At the population level, so-called metabolically healthy obesity is not a harmless condition, and perhaps it is better not to use this term to describe an obese person, regardless of how many metabolic complications.