Are those two words mutually exclusive in your mind? Can you be fit but not thin? Can you be thin but not fit?
For a long time I associated thinness with fitness. Over the years I’ve learned that those two words do not automatically go together. Case in point:
I did a 5K not to long ago, and a woman 10 years older than I am sailed up the hill past me like she was on wings. She was technically overweight but her weight did not slow her down on the 5K. I was impressed and wanted to be like her! On the other side of the coin was a very thin, fit-looking young woman. She was probably in her early 20′s and she barely finished the race. She was struggling (as was I) on the hills and finished quite a bit behind me.
Please know that I’m not judging either lady. We all finished our own races and all were proud of ourselves. My question is about fitness and thinness.
Here’s a study by cardiologist C. Noel Bairey-Merz. She found “That women who were routinely physically active and overweight were less likely to suffer heart problems than their normal weight counterparts who didn’t exercise. And conversely, normal weight women who did not exercise, she says, increased their risk of cardiovascular disease. “They don’t have the cardiovascular reserve,” she says. “They’re fine sitting quietly, working on the computer, hopping on the Internet, watching DVDs. Everything’s fine at rest.” But when they actually have to do something, or when they face an actual cardiovascular stresser — like a car accident, heart attack or pneumonia — then, Bairey-Merz says, they do not have a fitness level that is going to help them do well and survive.” (Source: NPR)
She goes on to say that “fitness matters more than fatness.” I found this whole thing fascinating, especially after my 5K experience. It made me think about some friends of mine who are average weight but don’t exercise at all and friends I have that are above average weight but walk for an hour every single day.
I see it in my own life. There were times through my journey with obesity where I lost 25 pounds without moving a muscle, but I didn’t gain any fitness by losing those 25 pounds. Why? Because I still wasn’t moving my body. I was, as Dr. Bairey-Merz explained, sitting all day long. I was heart disease waiting to happen. Fortunately, when I lost 150 pounds, I was aware that I needed to lose weight AND improve my fitness level. To my surprise I enjoyed the physical exertion of exercise and still do.
I’m interested to see what you think about the concept that fitness is more important than fatness. Agree or disagree? Diane
This is very interesting. For me personally, I feel being overweight is much more dangerous than a thin person not exercising. I believe exercise is EXTREMELY important, but being overweight will cause so many issues! Our bodies are not built for being overweight and when we are bad things happen like Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Hypo-Thyroid, High Cholesterol the list goes on and on.
I also believe our bodies were built to move, so without moving our bodies we are at risk as well. Just in my opinion not as big of one.
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There was times when I was obese, that I could walk a 5k without feeling out of breath. I think that fitness and being thin, don’t walk hand-by-hand. You can be fit and still be over weight as well.
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Food for thought.
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I think it’s better to be fit than thin. But having said that, I don’t believe that being “fit and fat” is close to being an ideal situation. There’s probably a lot more stress being placed on the body than if you were at a more balanced weight. And I would guess that the nutrition of someone who is “fit and fat” is very off – both in terms of portion size and nutritional value.
I’m 28 now and overweight (but not near obese) and have been all my life. I feel sad at this fatness. But I know that if I am still this level of fatness and still able to run 5k like I can now when I’m 48 or 58, I’ll be pretty pleased with what I’ve achieved healthwise as it will be a considerable step forward from previous generations in my family who are considerably fatter and less fit.
I’m not sure I would say the same if I was much more overweight though.
We backpacked into a mountain lake for the weekend with another couple, and the female of the couple is athletically competitive, while her husband is working to lose weight and is in pretty good shape.
On the hike out, an elderly guy on horseback said “boy, when I saw you at the lake I thought they might have helicoptered you in, you’re braver than I am”
My friend is working to lose weight, but in the mean time has to put up with silly, ignorant comments made by people who assume that fit=thin.
I just saw a magazine article debating this very thing. I’m all about fit being more important. Seems to me fitness has to do with how the body functions while thin is more of an aesthetic.
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This question always presents a dilemma for me. Even at my highest weight, I was always a walker, a hiker and a biker. My statistics were enviable. While I was at goal weight and while I’m currently losing some I’ve gained back, I notice that the only difference is that I can do more with less struggle than before. So I feel I was always fit. As with many things, I guess the answer lies in your definition of “fit” and whether or not it is being used as an excuse for not losing excess weight. Fit or not, we know that excess weight puts an added strain on the heart, muscles, lungs and many other things. And it works both ways – I have many friends who APPEAR thin and healthy who scoff at any exercise routine. They are NOT fit!!
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I think fit is important Diane BUT along with “the numbers” from the doc. If a person gets a clean bill of health & is fit &* can do thinngs…. I see a lot of what they call “skinny fat”. Too thin with high body fat & already on the way to having osteoporosis. I think you have to take a lot of things into account.. Interesting post!
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Interesting question….Honestly my viewpoint and my answer to this is changing…I was a strong believer in fitness over thinness for lots of years… I was healthy..by the doctor’s numbers but not the scale numbers.. I have spent the last couple of years moving more, eating better, and my blood pressure etc show healthy….BUT..
Even with that fact, I am coming to the realization that perhaps…that won’t last. As I get older and my body goes through even more changes. a little thinner might just be better IF I continue the healthy things I have started and add a little MORE moving AND having LESS weight
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I think being fit is more important for health. I think being thin is more important for the mind- (self esteem and confidence). I strive for both. BUT if I had to pick one….. I would go with being fit!
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I love this topic; especially as it relates to running. And I would say that you first need to refine the definition of “thin” You can be fast, and run far, but still be overweight. You can also have a nice supply of fat, which some say is healthy, but be extremely fit.
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I love this topic too!
I think for those of us who are overweight – we’d probably rather be thin than fit simply for reasons you mentioned: society places a stigma that if you are thin, then you are in shape and take good care of yourself. I know a gal who can’t weigh more than 100 pounds (SUPER skinny) and she munches on candy bars and junk food all day long.
I suppose if neither the thin person nor the overweight person exercises, then you’d be better off being thin and lethargic than fat and lethargic simply because the added weight adds additional risks and health concerns.
If you are fit, then chances are you will get to a healthy weight eventually. To quote one of my best friends “you never see a fat gazelle, do you?”.
There’s the balance though. As a super-active person who may be “fit” but is quite overweight due to a poor diet, I would argue potentially they may be just as unfit as the skinny person who eats well but does nothing in terms of physical fitness. Just depends on individual ideas of fitness!! (ok, this was a novel, sorry!
Honestly I know a lot of fit chubby people, all I want is a six pack, becuase I am vain. I think some people (like me) need to SEE results to get addicted to exercise. Right now its more important to me to run a marathon and survive than to be thin. but it took me a long time to get here
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When I was 250+ my goal was to lose weight and be “thin.” Once I got to my goal weight my perspective changed. It was less about being thin, less about the number on the scale and more about being FIT. I can swim 2 miles without resting. I can bike 55 miles. I can hike, run, lift weights and I feel strong and confident. That’s more important!
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I’m not sure the question can be asked. It assumes an either-or sort of thing … and it also doesn’t lead anywhere better, I don’t think. I’ve never seen anyone answer that question in a useful way. It’s always either:
1) an assumption that fit == thin however you may get there, or
2) a reaction that since thin people get cancer too, then somehow obesity is fine.
The idea of fitness or health has so many factors in it. When I was a kid, the captain of the city hockey team near me was a brilliant player, one of the best in the sport’s history — with diabetes. (Bobby Clarke, for any hockey fans.)
Was he “fit?” Absolutely.
Does that somehow make having diabetes “okay?”
No. It’s still an illness, and one that a person is better off without.
It’s too complicated a concept for an either-or question, really.
Hi, Diane. I agree with the fitness being more important than fatness model when comparing a thin to normal weight sedentary person with an active overweight person… I think you can carry an extra 10-15 pounds if you’re Asian or 20-30 pounds for other races without negatively affecting health… I do not agree with the “health at every size” camp that thinks you can be a healthy obese person. Certainly you can have good blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar tests in your 20s or even 30s when heavy but that doesn’t mean you’re healthy either–it just means that any weight related negative things haven’t shown up yet. Most of my friends who are overweight and active decided to get less overweight in midlife in order to stay active, even if they were “healthy”–why? Joints and backs and other aches that curtail activity as one ages with some extra poundage.
I was not sedentary when I weighed 30 pounds more–I just ate a lot more and it caught up with me healthwise once I entered my 40s. I am MORE active now, but I wasn’t inactive then. I’ve changed what I do though. I do more aerobic exercise now like walking and elliptical machines, and more stretching, both of which I think are really key as I get close to 50. In my 30s I lifted weights more (I lost a lot of muscle as well as fat when I lost weight.) I feel better without all the bulk. I still do some resistance/weight machine exercises on the legs for my knees which have past injuries, but I stopped doing upper body weights because after a few decades of rheumatoid arthritis in my smaller joints, I never know when my hands will just let go and it’s become too dangerous.
What’s better-fit or thin? BOTH. But if you are a little overweight and fit, I say better to be fit than thin if you have a choice–for those who are obese, please try to both reduce and get fitter… Take it from someone who knows someone who got a whole new lease on life after a kidney transplant who developed type 2 diabetes in her early 30s and didn’t realize it till she had a lot of damage. She was overweight and walked for exercise. Diabetes is not a good thing.
Also, we’re all individuals. My body raises its blood pressure if I become overweight at my age. In fact, that affects me much more than eating salt. The main thing is to be healthy…
This topic comes up now and then. I don’t really know why. None the less, my opinion:
The best is to be both fit and normal weight.
I do not believe one can be both very fit and very fat.
I worry that using the comparison of fit or thin is just another example of looking for an excuse to not need to be a normal weight.
“You never see a fat gazelle”, because gazelles a genetically programmed to be slim. Same thing goes for greyhounds. But do you ever see a skinny Newfoundlander? For that matter, do you ever see a short sequoia tree? That kind of statement just doesn’t hold water.
Some people are tall and fat, others tall and slim, others short and fat, others short and slim. We don’t know their level of fitness by simply looking at them. To a great extent, our general size and shape are genetically programmed and hereditary. If you have slim parents, you will probably be slim too, even if you were adopted at birth and raised by two morbidly obese parents. A number of studies on identical twins raised apart by different parents have shown the hereditary element to be most important.
Some (but not all) people can “junk-food” and “sedentary” themselves into morbid obesity. By simply eating unprocessed, healthy foods and engaging in physical activity on a regular basis, these morbidly obese people will probably lose some weight. Will they become slim? Probably not. It’s not in their genes. Will they become healthier? Will their labs, BP, etc. improve? Very likely. This is true health.
There are lots of people out there who are fat and healthy. For a look at what this means, I strongly recommend Ragen Chastain’s blog, Dances With Fat. Ragen is a 5’4″, 280-ish pound professional dancer and athlete. She tried the traditional diet, diet, diet route and it got her nowhere. She now lives an extremely active, healthy life while still being morbidly obese. Her post today on weight and joint health is excellent.
Although everybody says they want to lose weight for health reasons, the truth is that women (and some men, but to a lesser degree) want to lose weight simply because that’s what society dictates. Questionnaires have shown that a shocking percentage of women would rather be slim and live ten years less than be fat and live a longer life. In our heart of hearts, we want to look “good”. Health be d**ned!
I strongly believe in trying to be as healthy as possible. If eating good, unprocessed foods in reasonable portions (and I’m not talking about dieting, calorie counting, carb counting, etc.) and enjoying enjoying physical activity get me there AND I lose weight, that’s great. But if I’m healthier but still heavier than what that incredibly blunt tool, the BMI, tells me, tough luck for the BMI. It says nothing about my health.
And speaking of the BMI, I suspect many people don’t know that it was calculated downwards in 1998, throwing millions of people into the overweight category overnight. I don’t think they suddenly got any less healthy or sicker than they were the day before, though.
This is a terrible time for health in North America. The population is supposedly getting increasingly fatter (though some studies show that weight has remained stable in both men and women since the early 2000′s) though people are spending upwards of $60 BILLION on trying to lose weight with no appreciable results. We need to stop talking about weight and start talking about health. We need to banish the idea that we are losing weight for our health, because in fact, we are neither losing weight nor getting any healthier.
If there were a concerted movement in society to eat healthier food and move more, we would have a healthier world. It’s a simple as that. Not necessarily a world where everyone has a BMI of under 25, but a decidedly healthier world nevertheless. The question we must all ask ourselves–and require a totally honest answer to–is “do we want to be fit, above all, or thin, above all?” If we are honest with ourselves…REALLY honest…I think we’d be shocked at how often thin wins over fit.
“You never see a fat gazelle”, because gazelles a genetically programmed to be slim.
Two hundred years ago, you rarely ever saw a fat human, either. The only people who ever got fat were very rich, people who had access to food 24/7. People were just not as fat as they are today in the same numbers. I’m sorry, but there IS a serious increase in obesity levels lately, along with the things associated with it — diabetes, heart problems, joint problems, etc. Unless human genetics has suddenly changed within the past few decades, the genetic argument just can’t be made. Sit those gazelles down for 10 hours a day, surround them by high-fat and high-sugar food constantly, and you bet they’d suddenly get round, and not because of a sudden shift in their genetics.
Actually, I would say that we are genetically programmed to be fatter rather than slimmer. Our genetics haven’t changed much over the past few thousand years. Our ancestors who had trouble conserving fat died younger than the ones who could store up fat for those long, hard months where little food was available due to drought, cold, etc. Fewer of them survived and passed the skinny genes on to us.
At least in the Western world, there are indeed more heavy people around now due to cars, sedentary jobs, less time to engage in planned physical activity, and an abundance of truly awful, cheap “frankenfoods”.
We do need to make more of a conscious effort to ensure that our diets contain a minimum of processed foods, as much fresh food as possible and try and carve out more time for both true relaxation and physical activity, both of which are essential to refresh our minds and bodies.
All this being said, I still don’t believe that we are naturally gazelles. We are bears.
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FIT for SURE. I am no where near my goal weight (although I have lost 100 pounds:)but being able to move around is what has changed my life so much in such a short amount of time. My goal “weight” is to be healthy. That’s it.
FIT for SURE. I am no where near my goal weight (although I have lost 100 pounds:)but being able to move around is what has changed my life so much in such a short amount of time. My goal “weight” is to be healthy. That’s it.
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Wow,NewMe, Chastain is really inspiring–but the exception doesn’t prove a rule… MOST people who are morbidly obese can’t and won’t move like that.
I agree that we shouldn’t aim at unrealistic things given our genes. I’m normal weight–if I tried to flatten my stomach pooch, I would look pretty awful/scrawny in my face and upper body!
Denise Austin had a great quote in her newsletter today:
Stop striving to be a certain clothing size. Aim to be a healthy, fit, and positive person — those are goals within ALL our reach!
— Denise
AMEN!
From my own experience, I’m chunky but I can move.
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Hi Diane!
Fitness seems to be more important, health-wise, from all that I’ve read. I have some pudge on my gut right now, but that doesn’t stop me from doing great in the gym. I am stronger and more flexible than I ever was. My cardio is great. My blood pressure is low. And, surprisingly, my joints feel better than when I was lighter but out of shape. My “tricky knee” is no longer tricky because the muscles around it are strong now.
So, given this experience,
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Thin does not equal well. Just ask a recovering anorexic who, at 5″3″ was 79 lbs and is now 110 lbs. Thin was not well.
Thin is not well if your muscle tone is non-existent. Thin is not well if it does not come with a healthy diet.
Fit does not equal well either. Almost every day the news does a story about an athlete who dies in their sport. I am not talking about chunky football players or sumo wrestlers; I mean long distance runners, olympic swimmers – FIT people who relied on physical activity alone and lost their lives.
I aim for Healthy. I consider healthy to be a combination of balancing acts: nutrition, activity, professional evaluation by a physician and mental stability. I may never be under 130 lbs. I may never win an athletic competition. However, if I reach 80+ years of age without needing a multitude of daily medications, walking on my own, enjoying life and life’s activities as I choose, and without needing someone to dress or groom me I will be winning the only race worthy of a lifetime’s dedication.
Jane~
Keepingthepoundsoff.com
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No contest. Fitness is MUCH more important than thinness.
The health problems associated with the obesity epidemic are not caused by the obesity but by the lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet with too much fat, too little fruit and vegetables etc.. The obesity is one symptom of the lack of exercise and the poor diet. Coreect the causes and hopefully you will lose weight – as well as correcting other problems like high blood pressure etc. But correcting the other problems are more important.
Having read this article I realise I really need to get more exercise on a daily basis. But I think in my case it will have to be a gradual process. I’m very very slim (and have always been that way) but i’ve struggled with strong forms of exercise even when I was at school. These days it makes me feel totally drained if i try to do too much exercise in one go. I think there is a link with my blood sugar levels. I am not diabetic (have had medical checks) but feel very unwell if I don’t have snacks between meals. I never skip a meal because I know how dreadful i would feel. Also, i have a tendency to lose weight from exercising and I don’t have any excess weight to lose (i’m already skinny and could most likely benefit from gaining a little weight). I think I will start using my rebounder to do gentle exercise and build it up from there. Any other tips gratefully received.
Sharon, you might want to have your thyroid tested for hyperthyroidism. Some of the symptoms of this condition are weight loss, fatigue, diarrhea and a racing heart.
NewMe´s last fabulous musings ..Whatever Happened to the Morphs?
Thank you for that suggestion – I will see my doctor to get my thyroid function checked. I know that my grandmother has had thyroid problems in the past.
Even at my heaviest I still felt I was in better shape than some of my skinny friends who barely ate anything or ate crappy processed foods and had no stamina to hike, bike, run, or even walk short distances.
It amazes me that I now weigh around 150 pounds and fit into Size 4s (! vanity sizing !) when the last time I lost weight by restrictive dieting I was squeezing into Size 10s. The scale might spit out the same number by the cardio and weight training has totally reshaped my body.
Fit is so much better than thin.
I think it’s important to realize that the only predictor for health is a healthy lifestyle, which encompasses healthy food, fitness, sleep, avoidance of harmful substances and a positive mental attitude. It doesn’t matter how thin or fit you are, if you don’t have overall healthy habits, you’re not healthy.
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Oh man, I have always been thin but until recently I could run 3km’s without feeling like I was dying! I would rather be fit than thin. Thin does NOT equal fit OR healthy.
I believe fitness is extremely important whatever your size.
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