Can a person be fit and fat?

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An average physician, or any other type of medical professional, would insist that until an individual loses weight, they cannot be considered fit. As seen on “The Dr. Oz Show”, experts disagree that someone can be both overweight and healthy at the same time. My stance on the subject is that it is possible for a person to be fat and fit with certain parameters set in place. I have gone over the readings and videos provided in class, as well as pooled information from previous experiences in PEMES classes at UNI to support my position on the subject. Uncertainties about the information related to fitness vs. fatness include whether or not a person’s weight is the determinant of whether they will develop metabolic disorders or not, if weight loss is really the key to becoming healthy, and at what point someone is too fat to be fit. Other indecisions include if obesity/increased weight is the cause of deadly disease and if so, at what point does obesity cause these diseases, if the nation can expect all to obtain a healthy weight based on some measure, how obesity should be measured in the first place, and what being “fit” really means since we have no actual definition for it.
My first impression was that those who are fat cannot be healthy individuals. It is definitely a stereotype I’ve experienced that has led me to believe the fatter a person has, the lower their health is. On the flip side, it is also a stereotype that thinness is a sign of health. In actuality, those who are thin might have lost weight through unhealthy measures in order to appease pressures of society or doctors, similar to Dr. Oz, who seem to preach that losing weight is the answer to all health problems. However, both sides of the argument have bene...

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...e healthy meal/snack choices for example.
I think the most important aspect to consider when deciding on a solution for this problem was that people should realize being thin really has no indication of health. As the articles discussing meta-analysis studies showed, showed, someone who is metabolically fit and fat has better health than someone who is metabolically unfit and fat or metabolically unfit and thin. I believe it is also important to recognize that diets, like Dr. Gaesser mentioned, do not work. Diets, whether fad or crash, do no good to improve a person’s health or lifestyle if that type of eating cannot be sustained over a long period of time. Changing a person's diet is a lifestyle choice and must be maintained just like an exercise program. These two components together are what separate the metabolically fit from the unfit, no matter their weight.

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