Fitness and mortality

July 1, 11:17 PMSF Fitness ExaminerJim Evans

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In the midst of an obesity epidemic, most Americans – not surprisingly - believe that weight is a pretty reliable measure of mortality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your fitness level is the most critical factor, according to Steven Blair, P.E.D., professor of exercise science at Arnold School of Public Health (http://www.sph.sc.edu/) and former director of research at The Cooper Institute in Dallas.

In a speech at the University of Georgia last year (http://talkuga.blogspot.com/2008/04/dr-steven-blair-speaks-on-high-risk-of.html), Blair, said, “Most people think that you can tell if someone's fit, active and healthy just by looking at them. It's not true! Fit, healthy people come in all sizes and shapes. The same is true of unhealthy people. I know several thin people who are unfit and have serious health problems. Weight isn't everything.”

Someone who smokes, has high cholesterol and has high blood pressure, but falls in the moderate or high fit category, has a lower mortality rate than someone in the low fit category. Low fit people have the highest relative risk of death, as “low fitness is a powerful determinant of mortality,” Blair said.

To get out of or stay out of the low fit category, it is recommended that adults walk 130 to150 minutes a week or jog 90 minutes a week. Taking just three 10 minute walks five days of the week will elevate a sedentary adult out of the low fit category, or keep an active adult at the moderate fit level.

By graduating from low to moderate or from moderate to high fit levels, a person of any age can cut his/her mortality rate in half with each move up the ladder – the message being that it is never too late to begin exercising.

A high fit 80-year-old – male or female - has a death rate half that of a low fit person 20 years younger AND a fifty percent to sixty percent lower risk of becoming senile with age. These statistics hold true even for body fat and BMI (Body Mass Index). The only thing that matters is whether or not you are fit.

In terms of mortality predictors, it is better to be fat and fit than to be a normal weight and unfit. Regardless of your natural inclination to prejudge based on weight, you cannot tell how fit someone is by just looking at them.

By always choosing the simple act of walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, parking in the first spot you come to and standing rather than sitting when talking on the phone, a person can burn 8,800 extra kilocalories of fat a month, which equals 2 ½ pounds. But, again, it isn’t just the pounds – it is the improvement in your fitness level in small day-to-day increments that makes the difference.

Blair’s final piece of advice? “Remember to walk the dog every day, even if you don’t have one.” But, in the present economy you might want to visit the local animal shelter and kill two birds with one stone.