An obese young person might feel that they are healthy but once they reach a certain age they will discover the price of that extra weight: bad knees, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.  I was one of those people who thought tht aI was healthy although I was overweight when I was young.  Now, at age 57, I am finding out that I was actually doing terrible damage to my body all those years.  I think it would be rare for a person to be more than 20 or 25 pounds overweight and healthy in the long term.

The conclusion I reached when debating whether "fat and fit" was ok for me boils down to two words: joint health.

I really don't believe a body carrying 20+ lbs. of extra weight can have the healthiest joints possible. The extra weight = extra stress. This only gets magnified with age, injury, arthritis, etc.

I also think someone who is too thin/sedentary with brittle bones is equally at risk.

As a lot of things pertaining to people, there is the large statistical evaluations of this which would lean towards NO, obesity has too many cofactors/effects, including the eventual effect of that visceral excess fat on the chemical processes and the weight on the joints, etc. However....individuals are...individual. Some people are genetically blessed against heart disease and diabetes. They can be fat and escape the trends. Others reflect symptoms (adverse) at lower overweight/obese statuses, others have to become morbidly obese to really show up high BP, prediabetes, etc.

I think an obese person CAN be healthy--for a while. Effects take a while. Joints can take a lot of years of abuse before they start to give. The liver can pack away fat until it becomes critical. The hormonal wackiness and pancreatic exhausstion may not manifest til middle age or old age.

So, yes. At some point in the continuum, and even for many years, an obese person can have great cholesterol markers, no inflammatory markers, no joint damage, no diabetes or insulin resistance. But it's a ticking bomb for the majority. Like smoking. You don't get cancer overnight. Damage builds. Some are genetically wired not to get lung cancer even from smoking.. But for those who are at risk, it's a continuous state of increasing danger.

So, being obese is...perilous, but not always unhealthy at points in time.

And if someone is obese and eats right, moves regularly, destresses, I think they can buck trends by simply counteracting some of the harm. Definitely. Lifestyle matters.

So, what about people like Ragen at Dances with Fat and Marshmallow at Do You Have an Extra Large In This? They are quite athletic, and I would wager they are healthier than most of us...

Lynn, I hope the bloggers in question maintain their good health well into old age. I really do. And from many fitness standpoints they are better off health wise than someone of "normal" weight who does not exercise. But I do think that the joint issues catch up to you. You can't change gravity. You can probably compensate to an extent with exercise and being lucky with genetics. I suppose they're taking the same chance everyone does who is not "perfectly" healthy - people who smoke, don't take their blood pressure meds, etc.

If I use my father as an example - he was athletic through his 50s - running, playing ice hockey, etc. Then he became more sedentary and gained weight - he's maybe 5'7" and 300+ at this point. However his health has been very good until recently. In the past year he started having knee problems and had surgery to repair a tear, but he still has pain and a pronounced limp after physical therapy and now gel injections. I am sure that the weight both contributed to the problems and is hindering his recovery. It makes me really sad, honestly. I wonder what his mobility would be like if he weighed 200 lbs. or even 150 like when he was younger...think about that, he's carrying double the weight he was when he was a young adult. That has to make a difference. I wish it didn't but I believe it does.

Having carried SOME extra weight my entire adult life, I believe that a person can be obese and THINK they are healthy but that eventually the weight catches up with the body and no matter how much activity and vibrance in a person's life, their health is compromised by obesity.  Denial will only take you so far!  

That said, the biochemical effects of overeating are extremely difficult to traverse, and shedding weight and KEEPING the weight off are proving to be huge challenges in my life!  But the only way I survived to this point was to claim that I was healthy and happy regardless of my obesity.  For decades I managed to pull off the self-delusion that I was healthy in spite of carrying an extra 150+ pounds - now that I've shed 90 pounds in the past year, I'm SO much more aware of that burden and SO much more attuned to why I need and want to shed the rest!  I'm still too sedentary but am getting better in that regard as the pounds melt away.

This has been a really thought-provoking discussion. Many years ago I'd have said, "no, there is no way an obese person can be healthy. THAT (the extra weight) HAS to be unhealthy!" But having come to know some very fit and medically healthy (by their bloodwork, lack of medical issues, ability to live well), I do personally believe a person CAN be healthy at a higher weight. I have the utmost admiration and respect for the two bloggers I mentioned. I am in awe of them. And while *to me* they appear to be healthy, I, personally, have no way of knowing if they are. Just as I have no way of knowing if any random person walking down the street is healthy or not just by their looks. Even athletes, dancers, thin people, models, and your average weight housewife can be unhealthy. Again, I have no way of knowing unless I see outward evidence of illness (person has open sores, person has difficulty walking due to size, person is giving themselves insulin shots, person is short of breath or in distress).

This whole discussion, for me, somes around once again to not judging another individual. Yes, we can discuss a class of people ("obese people") and whether they CAN be healthy... obviously to me, the answer is YES. As a commenter pointed out, if you find one healthy obese person the answer is yes, an obese person can be healthy. However perhaps we can agree that MOST obese people are not healthy. Can we agree on that? If not, I want to hear your view... I am open to learning.

And so then, if most obese people are not healthy then we are stuck with most of the world seeing an obese person and assuming they MUST be unhealthy because of their weight, which, I think, is wrong.

In fact, maybe most AMERICANS are unhealthy, due to lifestyle. But because their unhealthiness does not leak out and show itself to the general public, no one judges. That's not really fair.

I won't look at an individual's size and make that judgement of whether or not they are healthy, any more than I will judge whether they are mentally stable. If I can't see signs of illness, I can't really form an opinion. And even if I can, unless this is a loved one we are talking about here, it is not my business anyway.

The purpose of the question was to see the many diverse points of view and to learn from one another. This is how we can grow and become more aware. I learn a lot from all of you!

Lynn, I have a question for YOU - do you think an obese person can live to be 90 years old? How about 100? I have no idea if there are people (perhaps lots of them) out there who have. Your reply just made me think that yes, I agree that there are a lot of obese people who are the picture of health *at this moment in time*. The ones I have known or heard about are all on the younger side of the old age hill, though. I think I have seen a genuinely obese person who looked like they were at least 75-80 once in my life, and I was taken aback because it seems like a rare thing to see. Maybe those generations have lower obesity rates or maybe they're not making it to that age, or if they are they are not out and about. But go to any public place with hundreds of people and count the number of obese elderly people...in my experience you'd be lucky to spot one.

Well, I just had to come back to this post and respond.  Lynn, thank you for posing a very thought-provoking question.  Personally, I have known a few obese people who are VERY healthy (unfortunately, I'm not one of them).  Colleen asked if an obese person can live to be 90 years old.  Yes, Colleen.  My grandmother passed away 3 years ago...she was 97 years old.  She was 5'1" and well over 200 lbs most of her life.  She, too, was quite healthy until she hit her late eighties.  Once the Alzheimer's took over, she simply lost her will to live...so it had nothing to do with her weight.

Now, I would also like to address another assumption people make. Marilyn said, "...the biochemical effects of overeating are extremely difficult to traverse..."  Why is it that people automatically assume ALL obese people overeat?  Perhaps another question for another discussion, yes?  

Because one does not become obese or maintain obesity by eating controlled portions of whole foods? Just a guess.