Although there is a good correlation between being slim and being healthy, being slim does not automatically guarantee that you are healthy.

Being naturally slim most of my life, I experienced this fact first hand. There were long periods where I was not involved in any active training and ate large amounts of unhealthy food. I did feel unfit, less healthy, and much more lethargic; fall asleep in classes, etc. Being slim, people assumed I was naturally fit and healthy. I tried to explain to them that I was not, but they would not listen, saying “oh, but you’re much more fit than <insert a fat guys name here>”. Well that wasn’t always true!

Of course, being overweight is not a good thing either, but improving your fitness is of even greater importance.

According to a report on MSNBC:

Men and women who were fit, as judged by a treadmill test, but were overweight or obese had a lower mortality risk than those of normal weight but low fitness levels, the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed.

With the obesity epidemic in many countries, people tend to focus on losing fat, but it’s clear that their efforts would be better put towards improving their fitness instead of worrying primarily about their weight problem.

The study showed that even a modest effort to improve physical activity can provide health benefits, the researchers said. Those in the bottom fifth in terms of fitness were about twice as likely to die than those in the next fifth.

Why then is there so much demand for weight loss pills and supplements when a little extra effort on improving fitness will be much more beneficial? Because people either don’t want to put in the effort or care more about how they look than how healthy they actually are.

The simple fact of life for us humans is that we were not built for sitting on our butts all day long, despite how fat and cushioned we make them! Losing weight is only half of the issue: exercise is the key!

Original msnbc article: Fit people live longer — even if they’re fat.