lessthanhalf
Explorer
After dropping a lot of weight and landing at a BMI of 24, I wanted to know whether losing more than that bought any health benefit at all. That search led me to this paper.
It's a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Br J Sports Med
covering cardiovascular fitness, BMI and mortality.
What it found: whether you're normal weight, overweight or obese, high cardiovascular fitness tracks with fewer cardiovascular events and lower death rates than being unfit at any weight. The unfit group carried 2 to 3 times the risk — normal-weight people included. I'd always assumed fitness mattered, but the size of that effect surprised me. It's probably messier in reality, since the heavier you get the harder it is to train enough to be fit. Clearly I need to move more. Staying lean has other perks, but purely on health grounds, this is a loud signal.
It's a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Br J Sports Med
covering cardiovascular fitness, BMI and mortality.
What it found: whether you're normal weight, overweight or obese, high cardiovascular fitness tracks with fewer cardiovascular events and lower death rates than being unfit at any weight. The unfit group carried 2 to 3 times the risk — normal-weight people included. I'd always assumed fitness mattered, but the size of that effect surprised me. It's probably messier in reality, since the heavier you get the harder it is to train enough to be fit. Clearly I need to move more. Staying lean has other perks, but purely on health grounds, this is a loud signal.