Page 17 - BBC - The Scientific Guide to a Healthier You

DIET

CAN YOU BE FAT AND FIT?

For decades, scientific debate has “Obesity only really leads to shorter
raged about the role of exercise in lifespans at the very highest weights.”
diet loss. Today, there is greater There is no point in dieting, she

scientific consensus that food intake claims. “To reduce your risk for
is more important than exercise for cardiovascular disease and diabetes,
losing weight. But the debate goes on you don’t actually have to get thin,
about whether being fit mitigates the you just have to exercise.”
health risks of being overweight. But the ‘fat but fit’ camp has few
Central to the controversy is supporters in the UK, and the theory
research from the Cooper Institute has received a new setback from a
for Preventive Medicine in Dallas, recent study of 3.5 million GP records
which shows that over-60s who by the University of Birmingham. It
exercise have lower mortality found that ‘healthy’ obese people,
regardless of how much body weight who had normal blood pressure and
they carry. American health cholesterol levels, were still at higher
psychologist Dr Traci Mann, from the risk of serious disease than healthy
University of Minnesota, is the most people of normal weight. The obese
prominent figure in asserting that people had 49 per cent increased risk
overweight people can live healthy of coronary heart disease, 7 per cent
lives as long as they exercise. increased risk of stroke, and 96 per
Dr Mann says there is no evidence cent increased risk of heart failure.
DO INTERMITTENT that overweight people have shorter

FASTING DIETS WORK? lifespans, there is just evidence that Verdict: Obese people with healthy
people who are sedentary, poor and blood pressure and cholesterol still
Intermittent fasting diets, such as the 5:2 diet, medically neglected (who are also have an increased risk of heart
revolve around eating what you want on some days often obese) live shorter lives. problems and strokes. 5
of the week and then very little on the others. But

are they more effective than other weight-loss
diets? The latest research suggests not.
A study published in an American Medical
Association journal in 2017 found that, after a year,
weight loss was not significantly different than for
daily calorie-restricted diet groups. Supporters of
fasting diets claim they provide health benefits
beyond weight loss. Indeed, animal studies have
indicated that fasting prolongs life and reduces
the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and
Alzheimer’s disease. But human studies are scarce
and contradictory. A University of Southern
California study of 71 adults published in the last
few years found that intermittent fasting reduced
blood pressure and risk factors for cardiovascular
disease, cancer and diabetes, and reduced body fat
too. But another study, from the University of
Illinois, suggests it improves cardiovascular risk no
more than any other diet.

GETTY X5 Verdict: Intermittent fasting is no more effective

than other calorie-restricted diets.