Here's a read on the 'can you be fat but healthy' debate:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26957675/
What people seem to forget in this debate is that
1) there's a world of difference between being slightly overweight and being severely obese,
2) you tend to gain more weight when you get older, and if you have come to the point of overweight in you late 20s, but don't make weight-management a priority in your everyday life, chances are you will be obese a decade later, severely obese two decades later and so on,
3) age is always a factor, and what is good, well and enough for a 60 year old is not good, well and enough for a 20 year old,
4) the official recommendations for exercise are the minimum, and the ability to do the recommended amount does not mean that a person is 'fit'. Fitness is not subjective, there are fairly precise methods of determining a person's level of cardiovascular and muscular fitness.
Here's a quote, note that it's about the study that supposedly showed that fit overweight people outlive unfit but normal weight people. When the study was discussed in the media, what got lost in the debate whas that
the study was done on people 60 years or older. Someone who is about 30 years and overweight, but only goes for brisk walks and doesn't watch his/her diet at all, is very likely obese and not even able to walk for 30 mins in his 60s. In order to be fit in your 60s you have to work for it when you are younger. Btw, this is one of the major flaws with HAES.
QUOTE:
Fitness: Walking briskly for 30 minutes, five days a week, is enough to protect you from disease, no dieting required. "Fitness is achievable, and may do more to improve health than simply losing weight," says Steven Blair, PED, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina and a leading expert on the benefits of exercise among the overweight. In fact, a recent study from the university tracked 2,600 people age 60 and older for a 12-year period, and found that fit overweight people outlive unfit normal-weight people. (Score one for me!) However, if you're overweight and it hurts just to walk up and down stairs, weight loss may be called for; obese women are 4 times more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis than normal-weight women.
