10 Exercises for Abdominal Muscles Fortification

Physical fitness can't be achieved if your abdominal muscles are not in good shape. Fat is deposited around the areas of belly button and one desire to have a washboard stomach. This is a technical term used for weight reduction and fitness on the internet widely.

People want to get rid of their chubby abs and tone it down properly. For this, you have to clear your belly fat first and then develop its muscles. It helps abs to give a firm look like in 6-pack in men. Moreover in sports, all athletes have to work on their abs fitness way to their back to strengthen their muscles to perform well in sports like in running sports.

There are numerous workouts that develop and fortify abs muscles but firstly you have to reduce overall body mass instead of targeting abs only. This will reduce the extra fat on abs for you to start with. Secondly you have to opt for workouts that target abs muscles. Effective workouts are available to tone done your muscles like compound workouts; including squats and dead-lifts.

Here are 10 major abdominal exercises that contribute to body fitness:

1. Crunches
It is a common exercise that focuses mainly on rectus abdominis. Lay down on floor with face up and knees bent. Tie hands behind the neck or cross them over your chest and then curl the shoulders toward the pelvis. Don't try to thrust against the neck or head in this exercise because it may harm you.

2. Situps
In situps you have to bend your knees to an angle of 45 degree with your hands falling along your thighs or simply crossed at the front.

3. Bicycle Crunch
It is one of the most effective exercises for abs to start with. It mainly targets the 6-pack area along with the waist. Lay down starlight such that the lower back of yours is pressed against the floor. Tie hands alongside the head and lift knees to 45 degree angle in air and make a pedal motion of a bicycle.

4. Captain's chair or hanging leg lifts
This exercise is commonly used in gyms today in which you lift the legs in air by supporting your weight on two arms of a chair. It also focuses on abs muscles, hips and obliques to tone them properly.

5. Wheel Rollouts
In this exercise you have to shove he wheel frontward until the whole body gets extended or tipped and then drawing the body back to its previous position. It is very effective in building muscles of abs but difficult to perform.

6. Fitball rollouts
There are different versions of Fitball rollout that target abs muscles, lower back and to some extent the shoulders and arms. You have place your body weight on an exercise ball by lying upside down, raising your knees from floor while balancing with toes for a short time and then roll back. This will exert pressure on your abs and help to tone it down.

7. Deadlifts
It helps to strengthen your back against a heavy load. You have to pull a barbell from ground by extending your body, deadlift with the help of heels and bring the hips frontward. Don't haul with the lower back.

8. Squats
In squats you have to bend the knees and hips to lower the torso by lifting the bar at upper back and then coming back to the actual position. Keep in mind that the hips should be lower than the knee joint before you stand up again.

9. Bent over rows
It primarily focuses latissimus dorsi muscle of the body with its different versions. It is commonly used in powerlifting and body building that helps to boost up your size and strength. You have to bend the knees with back straight over the bar and hold it firmly. Now lift the bar up to the upper waist. Return to your previous position such that the shoulders are arms get extended.

10. Seated cable rows
It is good workout to fortify the mid-back area of your body. You set your feet on the foot plates of low cable equipment having a bench to sit on. Don't use force while doing this exercise, otherwise the pay off will be reduced and may cause injury as well.

Help of Water and Tea for Weight Loss

There is absolutely no doubt in the fact that the greatest health concern of the people today is weight gain. People are becoming obese and are gaining weight at an alarming pace. This increase in the number of people becoming fat and obese was expected for some time because of the heightened use of high calorie junk food by the people. The ignorance of the people towards their eating habits has resulted in them becoming fat and obese. The people having weight gain issues look for solutions to their problem and there are many of them.

Water is one of the most essential needs of a human body without which a person cannot survive. Since the body keeps losing water in the processes of respiration, excretion and perspiration, it requires to be refilled or the person will start feeling dehydrated. When a person becomes dehydrated, his body begins to retain water, this results in increasing his body weight. However if a person keeps drinking water regularly and keeps himself hydrated, the need of the body to retain water is dispelled resulting in weight loss. Doctors suggest that drinking 3.7 liters of water per day is helpful for decreasing body weight.

Tea has had a very distinguished history of being used for the purpose of reducing weight in the centuries gone by. Herbal tea was used by the Chinese for maintaining their health in the ancient times. Green tea is the newest weight loss product that is being recommended nowadays by nutritionists to people who are struggling to keep their weight down. The high concentration of catechin polyphenols in green tea has been touted as the reason for bringing down the weight of a person. These catechins help in increasing thermogenesis in the body, which is a biological process in which fat is burned to produce energy. This increase in the fat burning results in reduction of the weight of a green tea drinker.

However, much water drinking may be insufficient in many cases. Regular exercises are an obvious way of losing weight for the fat people, however, most of them tire very quickly and end up losing their interest in doing exercise in a matter of a few weeks. Thus, a more effective method of losing weight has been coined for such people. This method involves frequent drinking of green tea for cutting down the weight of a person. This might sound very funny but it is true that drinking appropriate amounts of green tea each day can help a person in losing his weight considerably.

There are a lot of green teas but we recommend you Tava. One of Tava tea reviews is always available on our weight loss blog.

Update on Obesity

Sarah Fudin currently works in community relations for the George Washington University's online MPH degree, which provides prospective students the ability to earn an online Masters degree in Public Health. Outside of work Sarah enjoys running, reading and all things education.

Americans have been increasingly concerned about weight gain in recent years, and with good reason. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three Americans is obese, making it common to speak of obesity as an epidemic a widespread problem that affects the society as a whole rather than an affliction of individuals who make poor eating decisions.

Who is Obese?

The obesity rate has fallen slightly in recent years and appears to have stabilized among children, but obesity does not affect all portions of the population equally. Obesity disproportionately affects those who with less money and education, as well as women. And obesity affects earning power and other forms of opportunity in turn: The obese earn as much as 18 percent less than those of "normal weight," according to a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report. In light of these considerations, taxing unhealthy food an approach adopted by Denmark, Hungary, France and Finland is problematic because it puts the economic burden of obesity on those most directly disadvantaged by it.

Healthy Eating Begins in Childhood

According to Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the trick to reducing obesity is to change the way that children eat. Wootan says that by serving healthier lunches in schools and removing vending machines, we can habituate children to healthier eating. She also suggests that part of the problem is that 80 percent of food marketing aimed at children advertises unhealthy food an argument that recalls the controversy around cigarettes being marketed to children. Children who learn to eat healthfully are likely to remain healthy throughout their lives, while those who don't will face an uphill battle.

Preventing the development of obesity in children has been a common goal of many anti-obesity strategies. While such strategies may not produce the quick results that many of us would like to see, they could produce much healthier generations of adults in the years to come.

A Strategy for Prevention

The Institute of Medicine recently released a new strategy for preventing obesity in the United States. The strategy addresses the obesity epidemic from multiple angles, including restrictions on marketing unhealthy food to children, increasing the amount of physical exercise mandated in schools, making healthier food available to children in restaurants and using doctors to disseminate information and advice about healthy eating.

While obesity is a deep-rooted problem that isn't likely to disappear overnight, we can take steps to prevent it from spreading and to eventually reverse the trend. It seems clear that no easy answer or single strategy will solve the problem of obesity in our society, just as drastic dietary changes tend to produce temporary results for individuals. But approaching the problem from several different angles at once does seem more likely to produce results.

Control Arthritis before it assault your health

Arthritis is a group of diseases that are the enemy of joints in the body. Various endangering diseases do not allow a man to live a healthy life in the long run. One or the other diseases are assured to attack human body wherein some can be silent or asymptomatic and other might show symptoms. Arthritis is not a single disease, but encompasses of over 100 different forms. The joint structure is changed with the harmful affect bringing about pain and swelling. Most commonly seen is osteoarthritis, following with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and others.

Osteoarthritis is a kind of degenerative joint disorder that causes degradation of joints, gradual loss of cartilage, bringing about bony spurs and cysts, and affects sub-chondral bone. Rheumatoid is a different disorder that starts to occur anywhere between ages 25 and 55.

Rheumatoid arthritis takes a chronic form and it is known to make the person crippled while causing damage, injury, loss of motion to the joints, and others, to distort them completely. The symptoms normally attached to this disorder include swelling, pain, and stiffness. Women are more prone towards this disorder showing the rate three times more than that of men. Obesity is one of the factors that drag women in the direction of this disorder. It was also included in one of the latest study held in 2012 that 18% to 19% overweight and obese women are likely to acquire rheumatoid arthritis. It is thus very important to have a control over the weight that can also aid in guarding from other disorders like diabetes or cardiovascular, apart from protecting from rheumatoid arthritis. It is basically the excessive presentation of the fat cells that delivers the inflamed proteins. Consequently, one should maintain a normal weight with the help of good diet and exercise.

The other dangerous episode of rheumatoid arthritis in connection with depression can probably lead to the jeopardy of death. Patient with this disorder are three times more probable to die within a year when he faces the symptoms of depression than other RA patient who do not show any sign of depressions. This can lead to the endangering complication in men.

Men with erectile dysfunction are mostly prone to depression, loneliness, and a feeling of worthlessness. Other normal men can also face the events of such depression without regards to ed disorder. These categories of men are 5 times more prone to die maybe in next year. Thus, it is important for men with RA chaos to control their emotions of sadness and try finding out for other solutions which will keep away from sadness thought. They need to solve their issues with doctor.

The other finding revealed about the newly identified genes and its connection to the rheumatoid arthritis. These genes linked to the X chromosome can help solve and clarify the fact of women being more prone to this disorder than men. As we all know that there are two X chromosomes in women while men have X chromosome and Y chromosome.

This is the guest post by Irvine Lampson,consultant physician and writer for Generic Pill Mart and author of various health related articles such as men health, generic celebrex, allergy etc. to help people to be aware about various health issues and their solution.

By Irvine Lampson

How Losing Weight Is As Easy As 1,2,3

Obesity in America has skyrocketed. According to the American Heart Association, 149.3 million Americans over the age of 20 are overweight or obese. Despite this overwhelming number, losing weight is not nearly as hard as many people think. Losing weight is as easy as 1, 2, 3:
1. Exercise more
2. Eat less
3. Sleep

Although those three steps might seem like a drastic change to your lifestyle, they're really not. When many people think of losing weight, they often think of words such as: "hunger", "deprivation", "agony", and the worst of all, "DIETING".
Despite what many people believe about losing weight, each of the above three lifestyle changes can be implemented into your daily life for success without you even noticing! What do I mean by this? Well, the changes that need to be made to your daily lifestyle in order to lose weight are very miniscule, and for most everyone after about 30 days each of these things becomes a habit! Let me explain below.

Step 1. Exercise More

In order to lose weight, you need to take in less calories than your body needs. As a matter of fact, this is really ALL you need to do in order to lose weight. Having said this, many people find it difficult trying to lose weight if they don't exercise, because they have to drop their calories down very low. This is why you here all of the horror stories about being hungry and deprived when trying to lose weight. The solution? Exercise! Doing anywhere from 20-45 minutes of daily cardio will not only help reduce the risk of heart disease, but can also help burn additional calories that aid in the fat burning process. This means that you will be able to add a bit more to your daily calorie requirements and still lose weight.

Step 2. Eat Less

As stated above, all you really need to do in order to lose weight is to take in less calories than your body needs. This is also why you here many people talk about how they "Lost 100lbs with the twinkie diet." Sure you can lose weight with this type of diet, but you will be losing muscle too! That's right, since your muscles are malnourished, your body has no choice but to catabolize (break down) your muscle tissue. Although you will be losing body fat as well, you will most likely be losing just as much lean muscle mass. In order to stop this from happening, we have a couple of options. We could eat VERY healthy, and eat nothing but whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats, fruits, and vegetables. And I actually recommend this type of diet for anyone who has very good self control. The problem is, most people (myself included) don't and will end up binging on this type of diet in the first couple of weeks as they feel deprived. Another option is the substitution method. This is personally my favorite for losing weight and has worked well with me in the past. The name basically explains itself, and literally means substituting 1-3 junk foods with healthy foods every day. For example, instead of eating french fries, eat mashed potatoes. Another example would be to drink water instead of soda or to eat oatmeal instead of sugary cereal. Pretty simple eh? This will allow you to enjoy everything in moderation while still getting vital vitamins and nutrients that your body needs for proper functioning and muscle maintenance.

Calorie Calculation
Is calorie calculating necessary for fat loss? Yes! Many people underestimate calorie calculating, and feel that as long as they eat a healthy diet, they will lose 10 dress sizes in 5 days. Remember, weight loss occurs because of a caloric deficit, not because of a certain food you ate. What I recommend is finding out the number of calories you take in daily to maintain your weight, and subtract 500-1000 calories from that number. Taking in 500 calories less then what your body needs will allow you to lose 1 pound a week. Similarly, taking in 1000 calories less then what your body needs will allow you to lose 2 pounds per week. Unless you are very obese, I strongly suggest not going 1000 calories below maintenance, as the risk for muscle loss increases drastically. As you drop in weight, it is very important to adjust the amount of calories you are consuming in order to avoid a weight loss plateau. Weight loss plateaus occur because just like muscle mass, fat burns additional calories as well and the more fat you lose, the less calories your body is going to burn.


Let's talk about something else that many people seem to be confused about. That is, how many meals to eat per day. Conventional nutrition tells us that 3 square meals a day is fine. However, for those trying to lose weight, I recommend eating 5-6 small meals per day. This will allow your body to stay fuller longer, since your body is receiving a steady stream of nutrients. Only eating 3 square meals a day will work just as well, but I recommend trying both to see which one works best for you.

Step 3. Sleep

Many people underestimate the importance of sleep when it comes to losing weight. Several studies have shown that when someone is in a caloric deficit and does not get enough sleep, they end up burning off muscle instead of fat. Also, people who fail to get enough sleep at night tend to eat more during the day, due to the hormone leptin that is increased. Leptin has often been named "the hunger hormone", due to the fact that it makes people crave food (especially carbohydrates) much more frequently and in much larger quantities during the day. So how much sleep is enough? Well, there is no single answer as to how much sleep a person needs, due to the fact that we are all individually different. What I recommend is throwing that old alarm clock in the trash, going to sleep at the same time every night, and letting your body wake up on its own. Allowing your body to wake up every morning without any distractions will ensure that your body is fully rested and you will not have to worry about any of the sleep deprived side effects that can occur.

To Sum It Up
Follow these three simple steps to losing weight and you will be guaranteed success. Losing weight is only difficult if you make it more complicated than it needs to be. Good luck!

By Drew Stegman

Genetic risk of obesity Sugary drinks

For people who are genetically predisposed to obesity, drinking a lot of sugary beverages could make their weight problem worse by heightening the effects of their obesity genes, a new study suggests.

"Almost everyone carries some genetic risk of obesity," says Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author on the study.

"People who carry a lot of obesity genes have a higher risk. People who drink a lot of soda also have a higher risk of obesity. For people who have both, their risk of obesity is much greater than either factor alone," he says.

To come to these conclusions, researchers examined data on 6,934 women from the Nurses' Health Study; 4,423 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study; and 21,740 women from the Women's Genome Health Study. Participants in all three studies were of European ancestry; genetic profiles were available on all of them, which allowed scientists to look at the 32 genes associated with obesity.

All participants completed questionnaires on their food and beverage intake over time. Sugar-sweetened beverages included sugary soft drinks, fruit drinks and lemonade. Not included: 100% fruit juice, iced coffee or iced tea.

The participants were divided into categories: those who consumed less than one serving a month of sugar- sweetened beverages; one to four servings a month; between two and six servings a week; one or more servings a day. Researchers made calculations that accounted for participants' overall dietary quality, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption. The dietary quality score includes dietary fats, meat intake, fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains.

Findings: The risk of becoming obese as a result of carrying a high dose of obesity genes was more than twice as great in the group with the highest intake of sugary beverages as it was for the lowest intake group, says lead author Lu Qi, assistant professor in the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. This means that regular consumption of sugary beverages magnified the genetic risk of becoming too heavy, he says.

The study is being published online Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, and Qi is presenting it Friday at the annual meeting of Obesity Society in San Antonio.

"This study indicates that unhealthy diet choices, such as drinking a lot of sugary beverages, can affect how the genes are expressed," Hu says. "Although genetic makeup influences obesity risk, the trigger of the genetic effects may lie in our environment."

Other genetic experts offer a word of caution on interpreting the results. It's hard to know if it's just the sugary beverages that are to blame for the increased genetic susceptibility or if it was influenced by other unhealthy lifestyle factors, says Ruth Loos, director of the Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. People who drink sugary beverages "tend to be less physically active, have a higher caloric intake and a poorer diet in general," she says. This is illustrated in the new study, she says.

Still, Loos says, there's no reason for people to get discouraged and blame their genes for their weight woes. She has done research that shows that being physical active lowers your risk of obesity, even more so in people with a high genetic susceptibility. Her study and this new one "show that your genetic susceptibility to obesity can be reduced by living a healthy lifestyle," she says.

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Step away from the soda, New York's soda ban

The New York City board of health has approved Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial plan to limit the amount of sugary soda drinks that can be purchased at food outlets to 16 ounces (473ml).

When Bloomberg first announced his plan over three months ago, he sparked a nationwide debate about the extent of government control over an individual's healthcare choices. In June, we asked you to share your thoughts with us about the idea - is the plan a plausible solution to the obesity epidemic in the US? Or is the legislation just another example of Bloomberg's 'Nanny-stateism'?

Since then, the mayor has imposed age restrictions on tanning beds and introduced "Latch On NYC", an initiative to teach new mothers the "breast is best" principle. But while Bloomberg continues to be accused of overextending his authority, obesity rates in the US continue to rise and other cities, like London, are looking to NYC's health policies as future models.

We revisited our people's panel participants and asked them whether or not they've changed their mind about the soda ban.

By Ruth Spencer

Why a pill just won't cut it

You can't turn on the television, open a web browser, or read the newspaper without an advertisement or study telling you a new way to be healthy. One study says chocolate will help you lose weight, another says it's all genetic anyway - how do you ever know what to believe? One way to think about it is to think about a time not too long ago before fad dieting and obesity were daily topics of conversation. How did your grandmother eat? How did her mother feed her? Many believe our ancestors were much healthier than we are today, and one way to boost our own health may be to mimic those diets. One thing they certainly didn't consume back then: dietary supplements and vitamins.

It may seem like popping a calcium pill is a great, easy way to get your nutrients. Maybe it even sounds more appetizing than having some yogurt. But did you know that a study by the British Medical Journal found a connection between taking calcium supplements and thirty percent rise in the risk of suffering a heart attack. That risk was not seen in those who got their calcium the old fashioned way - by ingesting it in their food - or in people who also took vitamin D with their calcium.

Another major drawback of going the supplement route is the risk that you will encounter adverse side effects. One report found that excessive amounts of vitamin A supplements can cause headaches and birth defects, lower bone strength and can even cause liver damage. Zinc has been associated with nausea, vomiting, and internal organ damage.

Supplements can also have interactions with your prescription medications. For example, blood-thinning medication and vitamin K can be a dangerous combination, potentially increasing risk for blood clots. Vitamins E and C may decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy. So if you're taking a prescription and you add a dietary supplement to your daily regimen, you may find yourself experiencing some unexpected and unpleasant reactions.

What does all of this tell us? It's hard to say exactly, except that when you pop a pill, you don't really know what the effects will be. Something else you don't know: what's actually in that pill. While the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture technically regulate what can and cannot appear on a food label, there is no government regulator out there keeping track of what a dietary supplement's label out there. So the health claims made on those bottles could be - and some likely are - entirely made up out of thin air. Is that the kind of product you want to buy? Probably not.

The truth is that we can get all the nutrients we need by eating a balanced diet that relies on a variety of foods and food groups. And food offers a lot of great things that you can't buy in a pill. It brings people together; it teaches us about new cultures; it tastes good. Why would you want to skip all of those benefits for a questionably beneficial supplement? Especially when that supplement comes in a non-regulated bottle and costs money? Do yourself, your wallet, and your taste buds a favor and skip that morning dose.

About the Author: Steven Madison freelances about health-related topics for this website. He's a personal trainer who has seen one too many diets based on supplements go terribly wrong.

Obese 'lose memory sooner'

Those who are obese, and have other health problems such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, lose their memory and thinking skills almost a quarter faster, found researchers at University College London.

Their study was based on almost 6,500 Whitehall civil servants, whose health was monitored between the ages of 50 and 60.

They were weighed and measured, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels were taken, and they were also asked what medication they were taking.

In addition, they were asked to perform mental tests three times during the decade, which were used to assess memory and other cognitive skills.

Of the 6,401 civil servants in the study, nine per cent (582) were obese. Of those, 350 were also classed as "metabolically abnormal" - meaning they had two additional risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, were taking medication for either condition, or were diabetic.

The researchers found the obese tended to lose their mental powers faster than their thinner colleagues, while those who also had additional conditions lost their memory and thinking skills fastest of all.

The latter group experienced a 22.5 percent faster decline on their cognitive test scores over the decade than those who were healthy.

Archana Singh-Manoux, of the Paris research institute Inserm, who contributed to the study, said their results indicated the idea that people could be obese but still healthy was flawed.

Shirley Cramer, chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "We do not yet know why obesity and metabolic abnormality are linked to poorer brain performance, but with obesity levels on the rise, it will be important to delve a little deeper into this association.

"While the study itself focuses on cognitive decline, previous research suggests that a healthy diet, regular exercise, not smoking and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol in midlife can also help stave off dementia.

"With dementia figures spiralling towards a million, the findings suggest we should be conscious of our general health throughout life."

By Stephen Adams at The Daily Telegraph

Overweight Women Experience Obesity

Overweight women face a multitude of hardships - such as discrimination in the workplace - that arise from the stigma surrounding obesity. While weight loss may seem like the solution for women hoping to escape anti-fat prejudice, it may not be that simple after all.

New research out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, The University of Manchester and Monash University, has revealed that anti-fat prejudice still persisted against former obese women, even after they had lost a significant amount of weight.

Previous research has shown that the harmful nature of obesity stigma crossed many domains, Dr. Janet Latner, the study's lead author at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, told FoxNews.com. So we designed an experiment to look at whether obesity sting persisted once the weight had been dropped.

Published in the journal Obesity, the study asked young men and women participants to read various stories about a woman who had lost about 70 pounds, or a woman who was currently obese or thin who had remained stable. The participants were then asked to rate the women's attractiveness and then give their opinions on fat people in general.

Negative attitudes toward the obese targets also seemed to increase when the participants were falsely told that the person's weight was easily controllable.

Though the researchers cannot explain exactly why the findings were the way they were, Latner and her colleagues theorized that people are perhaps more judgmental towards the obese, because they believe that it is something the person can easily manage.

Because of their staggering findings, Latner and her team agree that government intervention is necessary to reduce the prejudice against the overweight and obese.

According to Latner, while obesity is important to combat in today's society, obesity stigma is just as important to address, because its persistence could deter overweight women from shedding the pounds.

By Loren Grush

Can You Be Fit and Fat?

YES: In fact, it's a worthy goal.
Steven Blair, PED, professor of exercise science, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of South Carolina

It's better than being thin and unfit.
Overweight people who exercise just 150 minutes a week have half the risk of mortality of normal-weight people who don't exercise at all, according to research I conducted. That's not true once you move from overweight (meaning a body mass index, or BMI, of 25 to 29.9) to obese (a BMI of 30 or more). But being fit and a little fat seems to be fine.

Weight alone doesn't raise disease risk-lack of fitness does.
In one study, half of overweight adults and one-third of obese people who were active had normal blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar, putting them at normal risk for heart disease and diabetes, which are both supposedly caused by weight.

Getting fit is more realistic than getting slim.
For most people, diets don't work in the long term. We ought to be thinking about different strategies. It's far easier for a fat person to get fit than thin.

You can't be obese and fit.
Unless you're in that tiny fraction of the population-like pro athletes or the very muscular-whose muscle mass explains their high BMI. For most people with a BMI of 30 or more, their fitness is reduced by their weight, and their risk of conditions like diabetes and heart disease goes up.

Exercise doesn't erase all the risks of being heavy.
Yes, physical activity is important, but so is watching what you eat. Most studies show that both diet and exercise are important for diabetes prevention, for instance. And a study in the journal Obesity suggests that people with the highest BMIs have unhealthy eating habits.

Playing down the problem of excess weight is dangerous.
If you're heavy, you can cut your mortality risk by eating well and exercising-but research suggests that even active obese people are at 91% greater risk of dying than active people of normal weight.