YOU: Fit may outweigh Fat

"You can't tell just by looking at someone if they are fit," says Steven Blair, a professor in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. "You can certainly be fat, even obese, and still be fit."

Blair and colleagues assessed the aerobic fitness, body mass index and waist circumference of 2,603 adults, ages 60 and older, and followed them for 12 years.

During that time, there were 450 deaths. Among findings in today's Journal of the American Medical Association:

• Fit older men and women who were at a normal weight, overweight or even obese had a lower risk for death during the 12 years than unfit people at a normal weight.