"For this group of women, their fitness level was much more important than their weight," said Timothy R. Wessel of the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, who led the research. "We wouldn't say your weight doesn't matter -- obesity has been established as a known risk factor for heart disease. But, at least for this group of women, their fitness level mattered a whole lot more."
The findings indicate that people who are concerned about their hearts need to make sure they are physically active, Wessel said.
A study of more than 900 women with chest pain found that those who were unfit were more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those who were overweight. One researcher said women "need to be out increasing . . . fitness level and getting back into shape, not just dropping pounds."
(James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)
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"You need to be out increasing your fitness level and getting back in shape, not just dropping pounds," Wessel said.
Physical activity and fitness may decrease the risk for heart disease through a variety of mechanisms, including lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and reducing inflammation inside the body, he said.
In the second study, a team led by Amy R. Weinstein of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and colleagues studied 37,878 women in the Women's Health Study.
Over an average of seven years, women who were overweight were dramatically more likely to develop diabetes, with their fitness levels appearing to affect that risk only minimally, the researchers found.
"For diabetes, it looks like being fit does not counter the increased risk of being overweight," Weinstein said.
But proponents of the importance of fitness over fatness said the heart study supports emphasizing exercise because it is a much more realistic goal for many people.
"It is far easier to get a fat person fit then it is to get a fat person thin," said Glenn A. Gaesser, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Virginia. "That is really the bottom line. Trying to lose weight and keep it off is, if not darn near impossible, then close to it."
