Obese & Healthy?

Perhaps you have heard about the report from researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y.: surprisingly large percentages of overweight and obese people normal metabolic indicators of heart risk while many normal-weight people have abnormal metabolic indicators. Those indicators included high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, and low HDL or "good" cholesterol. Participants were considered metabolically healthy if they had none or one abnormality and metabolically abnormal if they had two or more abnormalities.

Studying 5,440 people, the researchers found that:

• About 23 percent of normal-weight adults were metabolically abnormal.
• About 51 percent of overweight adults were metabolically normal.
• About 31 percent obese adults were metabolically normal.

Normal-weight people with metabolic abnormalities tended to be older, less physically active and have larger waists than healthy normal-weight individuals. Obese people with no metabolic abnormalities were more likely to be younger, black, more physically active and have smaller waists than those with metabolic risk factors.

These data do not lead to the conclusion that one can be obese and healthy, since they say nothing about the percent of overweight and obese people who are physically active and exercising regularly. The percentage of both tend to go down as weight increases. Yet those two ingredients, physical activity and regular exercise, are the key to good health at any weight or Body Mass Index.

So find ways to get yourself moving! Don't focus on the "should" of activity and exercise; instead, focus on the "fun." Find things that you love to do, by yourself or with others, and then develop a pattern of pleasuring yourself regularly. You'll enjoy the practice as well as the benefits of health and wellness.

Coaching Inquiries: What's your pattern of activity and exercise? Is it regular? Is it fun? How could you make it more regular and fun? Who could become your partners on the journey?

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