What I was trying to stress is that people who are a few pounds overweight who eat healthily and take regular exercise can be healthier than skinnier people who take very little exercise and do not take care with the food they are putting inside of their bodies.

A figure on the bathroom scales or a BMI chart is far too simplistic in regards to health. Although most doctors believe that BMI is a good indicator of a person’s health it is not foolproof. Exceptions occur especially in regards to athletes who have built up more muscle mass than average and so have a BMI score which puts them in the obese category.

Real obesity does have negative consequences on a person’s health. It has been identified as a cause for many different diseases but having a healthy BMI score does not guarantee one is healthy either.

People who do not look fat on the outside can be hiding internal fat which surrounds vital organs like the heart, liver and pancreas and doctors now think this internal fat could be as dangerous as the more obvious visible fat.

Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London has undertaken research funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council. He and his team scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to find out where they were storing fat. They discovered that as many as 45 percent of women and nearly 60 percent of men with normal BMI scores had excessive levels of internal fat. This has lead doctors to worry that thin people may falsely assume they are healthy because they are not overweight.

There is much more to being healthy than just being a healthy weight. As I stated in my previous article, it is also important to make good food choices, take regular exercise and keep blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control.

It is interesting that Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina is quoted as saying. “Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit.”

Therefore, when attempting to be healthy it is not enough to just watch how much you are eating to maintain a BMI score in the healthy weight range. It is also important to watch what you are eating and, arguably even more important, to take regular exercise in order to maximise your health.

Start your week off healthily by making sure you do some form of exercise today.

Further Reading

1. Internal fat deposits may endanger people who look thin externally
2. Thin people can be fat on the inside
3. Exercise critical to melt internal fat
4. Abdominal and Total Body Fat Loss Linked to Regular Exercise, Researcher at Yale Finds

©2010 Quest For Health. All Rights Reserved.

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Being obese, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more, is bad for one’s health but a new study reported in the New York Times states that being a few pounds overweight could protect people, especially the elderly, from an early death.

Researchers found that while underweight and obese people die earlier than people of normal weight, those who are overweight actually live longer than people of normal weight.

From this study it looks like keeping a healthy lifestyle is more important than losing a few extra pounds. However, the researchers are keen to emphasise that they are not encouraging people to put on weight as there are many negative health consequences associated with being overweight and obese.

In order to enjoy better health it is important to choose a healthy lifestyle by making good food choices, taking regular exercise and keeping blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control.

Perhaps we should all stop beating ourselves up about being a few pounds overweight and concentrate more on achieving a healthy lifestyle if we want to improve our overall health rather than just concentrating on what the scales tell us we weigh.

©2010 Quest For Health. All Rights Reserved.

I was interested to read Why those oh-so-healthy diet foods make us eat even more in the Mail Online which tells us that people who are on diets to lose weight can eat just as many calories as they would if they were not on a diet even though they are eating healthier food.

It reminded me of a good friend of mine who, when on a diet, thought he could eat as many crispbreads as he wanted. Even though I tried to explain that it was not what he ate but the amount of calories he consumed that make him put on weight, he still could not understand. He had it in his head that chocolate, biscuits and cakes made him fat but crispbreads, apples and other so called diet food would not make him put on weight. Needless to say, he did not succeed in losing weight.

Unfortunately, the simple truth is, if you eat more calories than your body uses up in energy then you will put on weight. Your body does not care where those calories come from. If it cannot use the calories up then it stores them as fat. Eat just one more apple than you need each day and at the end of the year you could put on more than 7lbs of fat.

The lesson to be learned is to eat healthy food but not to eat too much of it!

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©2010 Quest For Health. All Rights Reserved.