Scientists say it is possible to be fat AND healthy at the same time

Being overweight is never fun, especially wth all the health risks that go along with it.

However, new research has claimed that it is perfectly possible to be fat and healthy at the same time.

The only drawback is you would still have to exercise.

Still, it puts paid to the notion that being overweight automatically means you are not a healthy person.

The conclusions were made by Dutch scientists, who said that exercise reduces the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke – despite high body mass index (BMI) levels.

In their study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers assessed the health records of 5,300 people, all of them aged 55 or over, and tracked them for 15 years.

They found that people who were both overweight and inactive were a third more likely to suffer a “cardiovascular event” than if they were of a healthy weight and exercised.

But overweight or obese people were able to take away that risk if they were active for at least four hours a day – from outright exercise to tasks like housework.

Dr Klodian Dhana, of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, said: “In the overall population we found that physical activity was protective for cardiovascular risk.

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“Overweight and obese participants were not at increased cardiovascular risk compared to those of normal weight.”

He added: “Our results show that physical activity plays a crucial role in the health of middle age to elderly people.

“Those who are overweight and obese without adequate physical activity are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease.”

However, because of the age-range of people in the study, Dr Dhana could not make the same conclusions for younger people.

Despite the conclusions in the study, some experts have warned that obesity can lead to other health problems.

Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, added: “Bad diets also increase the risks for other conditions over and above cardiovascular disease.

“Being active is definitely good, whatever your BMI. But having a high BMI still increases risks of many conditions and also makes being active somewhat harder too.”

Top pic: Rex/posed by model