And I know this from reading pieces like this in the New York Times. Turns out your performance on a treadmill test is a far better measure of your mortality risks than the numbers on a scale. We told you so!
So yes, it's better to be fat and fit than skinny and unfit. And yes, let's take a look at just how loaded words like fat and overweight are in our culture.
I can't wait for this kind of thinking to percolate down through the culture. Just last night I was at dinner with, among others, a woman who teaches others about exercise and fitness. She paid lip service to some of the "fat but fit" thinking, but her parting comment was so typical of this debate: "But it's still bad to be fat."
I'm sending her the link to this article. Hope she gets it.