“Maybe 5'10", beautiful smile, fit …”
If a friend described a girl he liked this way, you would probably immediately assume that she is slim. But is that what it really means to be “fit?” On UrbanDictionary.com, the first score of definitions conveys something to the effect of: “Extremely good looking, synonymous with ‘hot’ and ‘sexy.’ British slang, relatively unknown in U.S.” And we know that Black Eyed Peas and Sir Mix-A-Lot, for instance, both point out that “hot” and “sexy” aren’t exactly synonymous with “tiny.” We often assume that tiny is fit, but Brits and music artists think differently. Athletes and scientists are starting to think differently as well.
Fellow runner Jing Mai pointed out to me a New York Times article entitled “Slimmer Doesn’t Always Mean Fitter.” In it, reporter Gina Kolata describes the quest for the perfect weight for peak performance in a number of sports like running, cycling, and tennis. The overwhelming conclusion among the athletes and trainers she interviews is that the ideal weight is not necessarily the lowest weight, nor is it possible to calculate with a formula. Kolata quotes former marathoner Tom Fleming who explains that “the perfect weight is the weight you are the day you … [reach your personal best] in your event,” and tennis coach Gill Reyes, who condenses it down to “feeling strong and fit.”
And what if you’re not going for a first place finish? How is being fit related to being healthy? At the John Hancock Center On Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention, researcher and Tufts University professor Jennifer Sacheck decided to look into this question. In a 2009 study of 564 undergraduate students, she and her team compared how being slim (having a low percent body fat) measured up with being fit (having high maximum oxygen uptake during exercise) when it came to unhealthy metabolic risk factors, such as low HDL, high LDL, and high triglycerides. They were intrigued to find that having better fitness was more important for reducing chronic disease risk than being slim. “We’re better off thinking about getting healthy first,” Sacheck expresses.
Rather than obsess about weight, let’s spend that time going for a run. Pretty hot.
