5 Surprising Myths About Excess Weight

MYTH No. 5: Fat is fat, and it’s always bad.

FACT: Not all fat is created equal. New research suggests that even if two people are equally overweight, one may be much healthier than the other.

For one, people who carry fat around their midsection are at greater risk for illness than their pear-shaped counterparts, who carry weight in the hips, buttocks, and thighs. Belly fat has been linked to a greater risk of erectile dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and other conditions.

But it goes deeper. Some people with extra pounds tend to accumulate fat in their liver; others the same size do not. Researchers now think that obese people with fatty liver deposits are at much greater risk than those without them, particularly because they are prone to insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes. The problem? It’s hard to tell who’s who. In reality, extra weight is bad for anyone, but it’s clearly worse for some people than others.

Whether you can be “fit and fat” is still hotly debated, but physical activity and a healthy diet do tend to offset the risks of being overweight, says Gans. Of course, it depends on how overweight a person is; if you’re only slightly overweight but still active, you may be less likely to experience health problems like high cholesterol or heart disease.

Although the term fit tends to be subjective, much of a person’s fitness is based on how quickly his or her heart rate returns to normal; the quicker the heart can recover, the better shape it’s in. So if you’ve hit a stubborn weight plateau, keep working out anyway—you’re doing your heart and lungs a favor.

Gans agrees. “You don’t need to be thin to be fit,” she says.