The Washington Monthly

April 20, 2005

FAT IS FIT....Good news from the CDC, food lovers!

People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.

The researchers...also found that increased risk of death from obesity was seen for the most part in the extremely obese, a group constituting only 8 percent of Americans.

A quick calculation indicates that I have a BMI of 26.6, right in the sweet spot! And here I've been thinking that I really needed to get serious about losing 20 pounds.

Read the whole thing to get both sides of the story — including the warning that there's more to good health than just being alive. And on a related note, although I wouldn't start getting complacent about being overweight, I've read a fair amount of persuasive research over the past few years indicating that regular exercise is more important than weight anyway, as long as you're not way overweight. Perhaps the old adage should be revised to say that half an hour of pulse pounding exercise a day keeps the doctor away....

—Kevin Drum 12:23 PM Permalink | Trackbacks

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