Research
Mixed
Low cardiorespiratory fitness is a stronger predictor of mortality than high body fatness (obesity) when analyzed independently.
Focus on improving your cardiorespiratory fitness (e.g., through aerobic exercise) as it may be a more powerful predictor of longevity than body weight alone. However, maintaining a healthy weight is still important.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Fitness was predictive of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in models that included body mass index. Thus, an effect of fitness that was statistically independent of the level of fatness was confirmed. The effect of fatness independent of fitness was less clear.
Why this rating
Large cohort, long follow-up, but observational.
Source
Fitness and Fatness as Predictors of Mortality from All Causes and from Cardiovascular Disease in Men and Women in the Lipid Research Clinics Study
June Stevens · American Journal of Epidemiology · 2002
DOI 10.1093/aje/kwf114
cohort · n=5366Cited 371×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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