An interesting question addressed at a recent Nutritional Sciences Research conference at the UA. Steven Blair, PhD and Senior Scientific Editor for the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, presented compelling evidence to support that overweight and obese persons can be fit and gain health benefits by being physically active. His research is quite definitive in demonstrating that fat guys who are fit are half as likely to die as the thin guys who are unfit.

His second key point was that the dose response for exercise to express significant and beneficial health effects is quite low – 150 mins of physical activity a week or 3-10 min bouts per day. If every American did this amount of physical activity a day the obesity epidemic would stop in its tracks and chronic disease rates would plummet!

The take home messages – even small amounts of physical activity can be beneficial to health no matter what your body size, type, BMI, or body composition. So get moving, go outdoors and play. Pass it on!