Can overweight people who regularly exercise be healthy?

In this post, you can find the answer to the question of whether doing sports while being overweight spares you from cardiovascular risks or not. Besides, we have collected find scientists’ advice on how overweight people can maintain the health of the cardiovascular system and lose weight easily at home and at work without working out.

It is widely believed that being overweight and regularly exercising is still much better than being thin and leading a sedentary lifestyle. However, scientists from Spain came to the opposite conclusion. They found that exercise practitioners who are overweight, in general, have less healthy hearts than people of normal weight who do not go to the gym. These are the results of the analysis of information on more than 520,000 adults. On one hand, it showed that physical activity can actually help reduce the risk of developing hypertension and diabetes. On the other hand, scientists came to the conclusion that being overweight still significantly increases the risk of stroke and heart attack. In practice, physically active people with high weight and obesity are twice as likely to have high cholesterol levels compared to less active people who are not fond of sports. Also, such people are four times more likely to have diabetes and are 5 times more likely to suffer from high blood pressure.

Based on their findings, the researchers argue that staying physically active is not an adequate strategy to cope with the negative effects of obesity. If an overweight person thinks that they are neutralizing all the negative consequences of this by jogging or going to the gym, then they are wrong. To improve health, it is important not only to exercise but also to go on a healthy diet and actively lose weight to an average recommended weight for the person’s height. Only in this case, a person will sufficiently protect their heart.

How to exercise without exercising?

Although a healthy diet plays a crucial role in weight loss and health maintenance, it is still important to move to burn consumed calories. But how can you exercise if you sit all day at your desk in an office? If you really want to make a difference in your fitness, you can take a small but important step to help: accustom your body to more exercise without actually going to the gym. Dr. John Morton, weight-loss expert and head of the bariatric surgery department at Stanford University, offers an easy way to take this first step.

“Stand out of your chair at least 30 times a day,” the doctor advises.

The starting point for more movement is small exercises. This is especially true for people who cannot run a lot, have serious weight problems, and therefore are not ready for more intense loads. It is a good starting point to change something in the situation.

“When you get up from a sitting position, you move, and that burns calories. This movement also helps to strengthen the leg muscles and stabilize the core of the body. After the person has stood up, it is better for them to walk down the hallway, or up the stairs from one floor to another, ”says Morton.

As with squats, standing up involves some of the central muscle groups: the abdominal and gluteal muscles, as well as the anterior and posterior muscles of the thigh. In order not to forget to stand up on time, you can set a reminder on your smartphone or computer. During an eight-hour workday, you should stand up about three times an hour.

Getting up and stretching is not only beneficial for the muscles, but also for the eyes, which otherwise are constantly staring at the screen.

"Once you strengthen your muscles a little, you can gradually increase your performance, walk longer distances and do other exercises more often," Morton recommends.

If you are ready for a change but need a bit of a booster, you can buy weight loss drugs from our online drugstore. For instance, you can opt for Orlistat, a medication that prevents fat absorption so the calories coming from fat won’t get stored as extra weight.