Overweight and Healthy

BhangraPrince
BhangraPrince Posts: 123 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Who thinks one can be overweight (20+lbs) and Healthy?
For example run a sub 60minute 10km

Replies

  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    If you're that healthy then losing the extra weight should be easy.
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    "Healthy" isn't an absolute. For that matter, neither is "overweight".

    I've run a sub-hour 10K while 60 pounds over "normal" BMI. But that was still double the time it took me when I was at racing weight.
  • shagerty777
    shagerty777 Posts: 185 Member
    Sure you can, if that 20 pounds is muscle and you use the stupid government's "ideal weight for your height" scale! Lean muscle mass percentage is a much better measure than weight but the true measure is where your blood panel tests show you are at.
  • drpsamin
    drpsamin Posts: 265 Member
    Go by body fat % and not BMI...so technically yes, you can be 20+ lb over weight and fit as a fiddle.
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
    i'm more than 20 lbs over my bmi and very healthy.
  • atjays
    atjays Posts: 797 Member
    over weight is a relative term. There are plenty of people on this site that are "over weight" but are actually extremely fit and carry a lot of muscle. Those ripped guys/gals on here, they are all probably "over weight" if you go by height, weight and BMI. Those are pointless things to measure your health by
  • rockymorales545
    rockymorales545 Posts: 2 Member
    I'm 30 pounds overweight and healthy but I am not at all happy with my appearance. As far as running a 60 minute 10k, easy peasy, more like 45 minute 10k (43:17 at almost 20 pounds overweight last summer, a 3:39 marathon while 25 pounds overweight two months ago and an 8:40 50 mile trail race finish two weeks ago at my current 30 pounds overweight (204 pounds at 5'10"). I'm up 25 pounds since last summer despite being super active and it's because of horrible nutritional habits but I just started an 8 week weight loss program at my gym that I'm paying an arm and a leg for and suspending all racing after a 05/07 marathon until I get my weight down. I am a very strong runner but I'm tired of being a fat fast runner and costingvmyself valuable time and losing to faster runners I'd be at if I wasn't fat. So, yes, it's very possible to be fat and fast/fitbbut it gets really effing old after a while.
  • BhangraPrince
    BhangraPrince Posts: 123 Member
    @rockymorales545 exactly what I had in mind when I posted this question. Over weight but healthy.
  • bubble_wrap0428
    bubble_wrap0428 Posts: 88 Member
    Weight is just a variable number.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    bubble_wrap0428 wrote: »
    Weight is just a variable number.

    So's my bank account balance but it still has a great deal to do with both my short and long term outlook
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    One can be very overweight, in good shape and in good or bad health.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    At 6'2" 205 lbs my BMI is 26.3 so overweight, losing 20 lbs would put me at 23.8 BMI. I did a fitness assessment a few years ago at the exercise lab of a state university and scored in the top 1% for my age group. I just turned 60 and wear the same size clothes as my 24 YO son who is my height and weight and has done some local fitness modeling (he does fill them out better), My medical numbers are in the normal ranges with no medication. I've been +/- 5% or so of my current weight for 40 years.

    I would say you can be healthy and 20 pounds overweight on the BMI scale but if someone is in that situation and not exercising or has a manual labor job, it may start to catch up with them.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I stayed fat but fit and healthy for 20 years, +30lbs from where I am now.
    Played squash to a reasonably high standard and frequently had to run people into the ground as I have no great natural talent.
    5k time was about 25mins but I'm not a runner, only really ran for beer and a challenge (mostly it was beer!)....
    Only ever did one 10k and it was under an hour.
    Also hit my peak strength when fat.

    But since losing the excess weight (fat) I'm fitter and more healthy.
  • Rockchick09
    Rockchick09 Posts: 200 Member
    I have a friend who's overweight but she can do the splits, pull ups are easy for her and she's totally rocking her workouts. She's fine with the extra pounds so if she's happy I think it's great. If you can run, do pull ups and train like she does then sure, you can be fit and overweight.

    But many overweight people do not work out at all so most of them are not fit/healthy
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    BhangraPrince, since your definition of healthy is "run sub 60m 10K", that is a very stable definition to which many motivated individuals can train and achieve even as they may be 20+lb above a 200-year old average weight of starving French peasants also known as BMI.
  • cgvet37
    cgvet37 Posts: 1,189 Member
    According to my BMI, I should weigh 170 lbs. At my healthiest, when I was in the Military. I weighed around 185-190 lbs.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    healthy is determined by too many variables.

    Blood work, blood pressure, joint health, heart health etc.

    You can be slim and not healthy...

    you can be overweight but by it's very definition it's not healthy.

    Overweight being determined by weight, muscle mass, frame size etc not BMI.

    BMI gives a range...mine is 136-160...
  • McCloud33
    McCloud33 Posts: 959 Member
    "overweight" and "healthy" are loaded terms. First, by overweight, do you mean according to BMI, BF% or the mirror. You will never hear me argue for BMI and if you're using that standard, then I would say yes, you can be overweight and healthy. As for the other two, If you're over 25-30% BF then you're going to look fat, and even if you can run, you're more susceptible to health issues due to the extra weight. Which leads me into "healthy". There are so many different ways to measure health that just saying "I can run a X min/mi" or "I can run a 10k in X minutes" is insufficient. I had a friend that was clearly not just overweight, but obese that actually got into marathons and stayed fat. It's all about your diet at that point. Personally, I go for all out fitness instead of just one metric. If I could run a marathon, but was brittle because I had no muscle mass...or I could lift 700lbs but was so out of breath going up the stairs, I would still consider myself "unhealthy".

    As for me right now, I'm 5'-8", 182lbs, 16-17% BF...I can run a 6 min/mi, sub-20min 5k, sub-50min 10k, bench/squat/DL 900+lbs, play soccer at a high level every week, have a resting HR in the low 40's and all of my health numbers (sugar/blood pressure/cholesterol/etc...) are all in the healthy/optimal ranges. But according to BMI, I'm 15lbs overweight.
  • Chiere
    Chiere Posts: 1 Member
    And what is healthy, really? If you are skinny and catch every cold because your immune system is crap, that isn't healthy. If you are chubby but your medical stuff is perfect, you're healthy. My BP is great, but I couldn't run AT ALL, even if Jason Momoa was waiting for me at the end with a Starbucks Trenti iced tea, because my asthma and torn ACL would take me out in less than a minute. I can ride a horse for search and rescue for hours, buck 50 bales of hay at a time, and dig post holes the old fashioned way (hint: withOUT an auger!) But I pay for it the next day when the fibromyalgia says "Ha Ha Sucker! It's curtains for you!" According to the insurance scales I'm a big ol fat cow. According to my mirror I look pretty good for an old lady. I like being strong but fluffy. And I don't care what someone else thinks :-) You can be above the 'accepted norms' of weight and still be healthy.
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
    Yes you can be overweight and healthy. But the question is what do you mean by healthy that's a subjective term.

    I used to weigh close to 300 pounds now them about 228. Yet when I weight 300 pounds and I had my yearly physical everything came out perfect. No high cholesterol no diabetes no high blood pressure no high triglycerides. Yet I worked with a whole bunch of guys who were skinny and appeared to look healthy but they were on multiple medications for hypertension and diabetes.

    One of the posters mentioned BMI levels. Read an article one time that says most of the guys in the NBA have a very high BMI. Would you consider them unhealthy?


  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    STEVE142142 wrote: »
    Yes you can be overweight and healthy. But the question is what do you mean by healthy that's a subjective term.

    I used to weigh close to 300 pounds now them about 228. Yet when I weight 300 pounds and I had my yearly physical everything came out perfect. No high cholesterol no diabetes no high blood pressure no high triglycerides. Yet I worked with a whole bunch of guys who were skinny and appeared to look healthy but they were on multiple medications for hypertension and diabetes.

    One of the posters mentioned BMI levels. Read an article one time that says most of the guys in the NBA have a very high BMI. Would you consider them unhealthy?


    The guys in the NBA are genetic freaks. BMI isn't a good measure for 10-15% of the population.

    I don't think you're saying being 300 pounds is healthy, but I'm guessing if you would have stayed there, 10-20 years from now your physical would not be coming out perfect.

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