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Staying Fit
Fit or Thin—Which Matters More?
Taking those “first strides”A walking/running program called First Strides®, for women of all ages and sizes, helped motivate Amity Cassaday (left) into action. She loved it so much she recruited her mother, Diane Hepner of Coopersburg (with her above), whose previous idea of exercise was doing laundry. Cassaday is preparing for the Runner’s World Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in April.No one would deny that Amity Cassaday of Coopersburg is physically fit. She runs 3-4 miles at least four times a week, training for a half-marathon. Yet according to the charts, the 5-foot 3-inch, 149-pound Coopersburg woman is “overweight” by about 10 pounds.The numbers don’t mean much to Cassaday, who doesn’t even own a scale. “When I exercise, I feel great,” says the 30-year-old mother of two. Though she’s lost weight since her last pregnancy, when she gained 50 pounds, she’s not obsessing about it. “I can be strong and healthy without being stick-thin.” Health experts agree you can be overweight and still be fit. In fact, some studies show exercise is more important than weight for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. But other studies point to losing weight as the key in preventing chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, and reducing the risk for premature death. So in terms of a long, healthy life, is it better to get fit or get rid of those excess pounds? It’s partly a matter of how much excess you’re carrying. While 65 percent of Americans are now overweight, only 31 percent of those are heavy enough to be “obese”—the weight category that carries the greatest health risks. Find out where you are by using the body-mass index, or BMI (see Want to Know More, below). You’re also more at risk for heart disease if you have the “apple” (middle-heavy) body shape. Female waistlines greater than 35 inches and male waists over 40 inches fall into this category. If you decide you need to lose weight, toss the bathroom scale and concentrate on the benefits of exercise. Exercise boosts your metabolism and energy level. Eventually you will shed those extra pounds. Cardiologist Deborah Sundlof, D.O., distributes pedometers to her patients and encourages them to take 10,000 steps a day (about 5 miles). “Exercise alone will reduce your risk factors for heart disease,” she says. “As you lose weight, you’ll reduce your risk factors even more.” An overweight person can have a strong heart, but the greater the weight, the greater the stress to the heart, says clinical exercise specialist Cathy Odom of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “It’s like putting a Volkswagen engine in a Cadillac,” she says. “You can’t expect it to go fast.” Most people think heart health means aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise—the kind that raises your heart rate for sustained periods, such as walking, running or biking. It’s just as important to include strength training—lifting weights or working against resistance—in your workouts, Odom says. The more muscle you build, the more calories you burn throughout the day. For Amity Cassaday, the purpose of exercise isn’t to lose weight. “It’s more about being there for my family,” she says. By running, she’s reducing her risk factors for heart disease—important because she has several relatives at higher-than-normal risk. Exercise also gives her more energy. “When you’re sluggish and overweight, you don’t feel like playing in the backyard with your kids and pushing them on the swing,” she says. This page last updated 8/2/08 11:42 AM
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