Fitness
To avoid premature death, fitness is more important than losing weight, new research finds – WTOP News
As more and more Americans are becoming obese, some are turning to weight-loss drugs to help them shed a few pounds. But new research shows there’s another factor that may be more important to consider for your overall health: exercise.
Overall fitness is more important than a person’s weight in avoiding a premature death, a new analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found.
Cardiorespiratory fitness, the analysis found, is a better predictor of cardiovascular disease and mortality than body mass index (BMI).
The new research reviewed 20 studies with almost 400,000 adults from different parts of the world. Researchers found that someone who is “normal weight” and unfit has a risk of death that’s twice as much as someone who is normal weight and fit.
If someone is obese and fit, the risk of death is about half that of someone who is normal weight but unfit.
The review defined fitness using a stress test and defined weight and obesity by using body mass index. The majority of studies classified people as fit if they get out of the bottom-20th percentile of fitness.
“People view exercise only as a means to losing calories, and we really ought to get away from that,” said Siddhartha Angadi, associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development.
“You ought to exercise to improve your heart health, to improve your muscular health, to basically maintain your pulmonary function and so on. That is what is going to give you the most ‘bang for your buck’ from a health and disease perspective in the long term,” he added.
Generally, Angadi said, the findings suggest it’s more important to be physically fit than it is to be a lower weight.
Focusing on weight rather than overall fitness presents a set of challenges, Angadi said, because people who are overweight or clinically obese often get tasked with losing weight. Many do in the short term, but most people regain all of it in five to 10 years.
“So what do you do to improve health in that situation? The nice thing is that exercise is pretty accessible,” Angadi said. “When you’re talking about getting out of the bottom 20th percentile, when you’re talking about just getting a little more fit, it is reasonably achievable.”
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By providing dynamic adjustments based on user feedback, Ginkgo Active offers flexibility to accommodate changing needs, such as limited equipment or fluctuating energy levels. Its commitment to personalization ensures each plan evolves with the user’s progress. The app’s gamified design further fosters engagement by turning habit formation into an enjoyable experience.
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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — High cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with better cognitive performance and lower dementia risk, according to a study published online Nov. 19 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Shuqi Wang, from the Tianjin Medical University in China, and colleagues examined the association of CRF with cognitive function and dementia risk, accounting for genetic predisposition for dementia. A total of 61,214 dementia-free participants within the U.K. Biobank, aged 39 to 70 years, were followed for up to 12 years. The CRF score was estimated using a six-minute submaximal exercise test and divided into age- and sex-standardized tertiles.
The researchers found that high CRF was associated with better global cognitive function compared with low CRF (β = 0.05). Overall, 553 individuals developed dementia during the follow-up period. The incidence rate ratio was 0.60 for all dementia for high CRF versus low CRF; dementia onset was delayed by 1.48 years among people with high versus low CRF. Higher CRF attenuated all dementia risk by 35 percent among those with a moderate/high polygenic risk score (incidence rate ratio, 0.65).
“Our findings suggest that maintaining favorable CRF could be a strategy for the prevention of dementia, even among people with a high genetic predisposition,” the authors write.
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Fitness
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