LAS VEGAS — Results from a study of nearly 6,000 people in the 1998 Scottish Health Survey suggest that patients who say they are “fit and fat” do not have a good excuse for not losing weight, Catherine Hankey, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.
Overweight and obese people who exercised did have lower levels of cardiovascular risk factors for coronary heart disease than couch potatoes of comparable excess weight, said Dr. Hankey of the University of Glasgow (Scotland).
Compared with people of normal weight, however, the fit and fat were still worse off. Cholesterol, hypertension, systolic blood pressure, and other indicators showed greater risk when body mass index (BMI) measured 25 kg/m2 or above.
Physicians need to make sure these patients know the health risks of being overweight, Dr. Hankey said. “The most important thing to tackle is the weight,” she said at the meeting, cosponsored by the American Diabetes Association.