Obesity rates worldwide have tripled over the past four decades, resulting in a rise of a wide variety of health issues, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. In an attempt to address these health conditions, diets and weight loss efforts have also rapidly increased, many of those efforts bringing their own risks.
However, new research shows that when it comes to obese individuals getting healthy and reducing mortality risk, increasing physical activity and improving fitness appear to be superior to focusing only on losing weight. The study by Siddhartha Angadi, assistant professor of kinesiology in the UVA School of Education and Human Development, and Glenn Gaesser, professor of exercise physiology in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, was published this month in the journal iScience.
“We would like people to know that fat can be fit, and that fit and healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes,” Gaesser said. “We realize that in a weight-obsessed culture, it may be challenging for programs that are not focused on weight loss to gain traction. We’re not necessarily against weight loss; we just think that it shouldn’t be the primary criterion for judging the success of a lifestyle intervention program.”
Angadi said the point is “especially important when you consider the physiological realities of obesity.”
