Adding Weight to A Workout
For Some, Size Isn't A Measure of Fitness

By Rita Zeidner
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The first time Adrian Rich showed up for one of Missy James's kickboxing classes, he had his doubts. The 30-something technology consultant took one look at the stocky instructor and wondered if she would be wasting his time.

"I remember thinking she should be thinner," Rich said.

Now a regular in James's Saturday morning class at the World Gym in Bowie, Rich says he judged too quickly.

"Whatever my original thoughts were, they soon gave way to admiration," he said. "I've been trying to keep up with Missy ever since."

James, who asked that her weight not be published but allowed that at 5 feet 1 inch tall, she exceeds healthy weight guidelines by some 50 pounds, is one of a subgroup of fitness professionals used to encountering skepticism because they are overweight. Fat can be a liability in many professions; in the fitness field, that goes double. For many gymgoers, it's hard enough coming to terms with your own body's limitations without having to worry about your instructor's.

"You can see it in their faces the first time they come to class," said James, 48, who also teaches cycling, Pilates, aerobics and weight training at several local gyms and is down 50 pounds from her heaviest. "People wonder what you'll be able to do."

Juli Presley, who at 5 feet 10 inches and 180 pounds qualifies as overweight on a widely used government index, can identify. She worries some may write her off as unfit before trying one of the 10 to 15 classes she teaches every week for Fitness First Health Clubs. Even though her classes fill with regulars, in at least one instance some gym members snickered about her size and questioned her credentials.

"I was very frustrated by that," said Presley, who has dieted on and off since she was a teen and has weighed as much as 254 pounds. "I would kill to be a size 16."

But sometimes, as Rich learned with James, size alone isn't a good measure of stamina or fitness ability. Health experts generally view physical fitness as having five key components:

· Cardiorespiratory endurance: the ability of the heart, lungs and circulatory system to supply fuel during exercise.

· Muscular strength.

· Muscular endurance.

· Flexibility.

· Body mass index (BMI): a measure of weight relative to height.

Numerous studies link excess weight and lack of fitness to a higher risk for many chronic illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes and stroke. But some recent research is challenging the view that being fat and fit are mutually exclusive.

"It's not a question of either/or," said Arthur Frank, medical director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program. "These are two separate issues. Being fit is largely a choice. Being fat is a disease. The only choice is how much effort you want to put into controlling it."

Some experts say the scientific community places too much blame for diseases like diabetes and heart disease on obesity instead of targeting the real culprit: a sedentary lifestyle.

"I don't want to minimize the impact of obesity -- there is no question that there are real problems associated with being overweight," said exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser, director of kinesiology at the University of Virginia. "But there is almost no weight-related health problem that can't be helped with exercise."

Because muscle weighs more than fat, health experts generally agree that body weight -- or even BMI -- isn't always a reliable indicator of fitness, particularly for muscular athletes. Nor does exercise work uniformly to trigger weight loss in all people. So the risks generally tied to excess weight can be overstated when a person is physically active, Gaesser argues.

"Some people obviously have compensatory mechanisms" that keep them from losing weight, Gaesser said. These could include eating more to make up for calories burned or slowing down in other ways to make up for an increase in structured exercise. And just as there are some people who are naturally tall or short, he maintains there are some who are "naturally heavy."

A 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association supports the "fat but fit" hypothesis. The study of more than 900 women found that those who were overweight but exercised were less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other heart problem than their thin but sedentary peers.

It's a comforting theory. But not everyone subscribes to it.

Fat vs. Fit

Another study in the same issue of JAMA found diabetes risk -- four times as high in overweight women than in healthy-weight peers and 12 times as high in obese women -- was only modestly reduced when these women were physically active.

"Many women who exercise regularly believe that they are protected from diabetes, even though they remain at an unhealthy weight," said Amy Weinstein, who led the study at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "However, our study suggests that physical activity does little to counter a woman's risk of developing diabetes if she has a body mass index considered overweight or obese."

Last year a JAMA study -- drawn, like Weinstein's study, from the Women's Health Study, a long-term clinical trial involving about 38,000 women -- concluded that no amount of exercise can compensate for the cardiovascular risks of being overweight.

What's in contention here is the degree to which fat puts overall health at risk and the degree to which exercise can lower that risk. What's not up for debate: the ability of someone who is overweight to perform athletic feats and motivate others to do the same. But that point sometimes gets lost when it comes to landing a job in the fitness industry.

Jodie Fouts, a former Marine Corps trainer, says her résumé won her an interview in 2005 for a trainer position at a Southern Maryland health club. But when she met the gym manager, there was no hiding the 235 pounds she'd been carrying after her first pregnancy and a knee injury that kept her from working out. He told her she "didn't look the part" of a fitness professional. "I knew that meant my weight," Fouts said.

Despite such snubs, there are signs that plus-size instructors are gaining acceptance.

Jazzercise Inc., a California-based dance-fitness program, agreed to quit evaluating potential instructors/franchisees on their looks in 2002 as part of a settlement with a 240-pound San Francisco woman the company had turned down as an instructor even though it had agreed she was qualified.

The woman, Jennifer Portnick, had filed a complaint under a local ordinance that bars discrimination based on body type. (Washington, D.C., is among the few places that share such a prohibition, colloquially known as a "shrimp and blimp" law.)

In a statement announcing its policy change, Jazzercize said "the value of 'fit appearance' as a standard is debatable," adding that "recent studies document that it may be possible for people of varying weights to be fit."

At Fitness First, a chain of clubs based in Frederick, some of the most popular classes are taught by instructors who are overweight, according to Tish Niffenegger, the company's fitness director.

"Not everybody in this business is a size 6, nor should they be," she said. "I'm not going to not hire anyone who is an awesome instructor just because they don't weigh what some chart says they should."

Fouts eventually was hired as a trainer with Washington Sports Clubs and later promoted to fitness director at its Clarendon gym. She, like James, now runs her own fitness business.

Good Role Models?

Still, given medical experts' concern about Americans' increasing girth, some in the fitness industry question whether an overweight instructor or trainer is an appropriate role model, or a marketable one.

"I don't think a lot of people would want to spend a lot of time with someone in the gym who doesn't live the fitness lifestyle," said Jim Bell, president and founder of the International Fitness Professionals Association, a Florida organization that certifies fitness instructors and trainers. "Fitness centers are about fitness."

But some weight-challenged gymgoers say they like working out with someone who understands their issues firsthand.

Dorothy Kane, 47, is one of them. She met Abby Buchanan at the Olney Fitness First gym when both were struggling to fit exercise into busy schedules. At the time, Buchanan was trying to work off about 35 pounds she had put on during pregnancy.

Kane, whose father had a fatal heart attack while working out at his gym, also was trying to lose weight and build cardiovascular strength. After Buchanan was certified as a fitness instructor two years ago, Kane became a regular in her classes.

"I really admired her dedication," she said.

Kane doesn't care that Buchanan still hasn't reached her goal weight.

"I only notice how she makes me feel before and after the class," Kane said. "The woman works us hard."

Like other instructors interviewed for this story, Buchanan, 43, said she has spent much of her life dieting. Exercise has helped her lose and maintain her weight, but only to a point.

"Would I like to drop 20 pounds? Sure. But am I dissatisfied with where I am? No, because I could probably outrun my teenager."

It has occurred to her that one reason she fills her classes may be that she is not a skinny-minny.

"Not all of us are born with good genes," she said. "People can see that my struggle is just like everybody else's. We're all in this dance together." ·

Rita Zeidner, a lifelong yo-yo dieter, frequently writes about fitness for the Health section. Her most recent article was on skate skiing. Comments:health@washpost.com.