it is possible to be both overweight and healthy

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine based in New York say that it is possible to be both overweight and healthy. They claim that over 50 percent of overweight adults and almost 1/3 of obese adults have completely normal cholesterol levels, blood pressure and all other indicators of a normal heart. The other interesting finding was that just because you are of a normal weight does not necessarily mean that you are at no risk from the above as 25 percent of thin adults were found to have some risk factors for diabetes and cardio disease.

The researchers led by Professor Judith Wylie-Rosett and Professor Rachel Wildman examined the clinical data of almost 5,500 men and women who took part in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys which were conducted over a five year period up to the year 2004. Professor Judith Wylie-Rosett believes that it is not just about whether you are overweight or not which is an indicator for heart disease but it is important to establish where exactly the fat is. Other studies have shown that visceral fat which is the fat that is found inside the body around the important human organs such as the heart, liver and pancreas is potentially much more harmful than having fat around your limbs.

One of the best ways to get an idea of the amount of visceral fat you have is to take your waist measurement however when the research team tried to establish a link between waist measurement and unhealthy heart indicators 36 percent of the obese people with large waists still had healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and hearts.

However despite this information that some obese people can be healthy you should be aware that obesity is not only an indicator of heart problems but also a host of other illnesses such as cancer and therefore you must not kid yourself into believing that you can be overweight and have the same risk factors for all potential illnesses.

If you stay obese all of your life you are still much more likely to die of some obesity related complications and also have a lower quality of life as a result.