Often, most people judge a person's health based on their body. You might think skinny is healthy but that isn't always the case. A study released in the American Medical Association Journal showed that 25 percent (1 out of 4) of the skinny population are prone to having pre-diabetes or is "metabolically obese." Hence, being fit is more important than being thin. But why do two physicians contend that for obese people, losing weight has to be prioritized over being healthy?
Dr Tammy Chang and Dr Carole Richardson, family physicians and from the University of Michigan argue that a person who is obese should focus first on losing weight than staying fit. "For people who are obese, losing weight might be more important to their overall health than focusing on fitness.In fact, evidence shows that exercise alone is not an effective way to lose weight.Rather, effective weight loss is mostly about what you eat, though it should also include exercise.
As family physicians, we see obese patients who have heard the message to 'just be fit' and have added 10-15 minutes of walking to their daily routine or have bought a Fitbit to track their physical activity. We applaud these efforts. But for many obese people, the message that physical activity is more important than managing weight is not only unhelpful but also not true. When it comes to health and wellness, fatness can matter more than fitness. And of course, for most people, fatness is related to fitness, because excess weight can make exercise much harder," they explained.
The physicians noted how a person's weight affects her ability to be healthy. For a person who is 5'1, the healthy normal weight is 100-120 lbs (45-54 kg) A BMI that goes beyond that (130-160 lbs) is considered overweight. Then if you weigh 170 pounds and more, you hit the obesity mark and would more likely be prone to several health ailments. For those with heavier weight, exercising and working out tend to be harder compared to those with normal weight. Hence the physicians are suggesting losing weight first by dieting then wok on being healthy through physical activities. "Fitness is just harder to achieve if you can't move easily," Chang and Richardson said.
