Image: Obese people can be "metabolically" healthy

New research has claimed that individuals can be both obese and "metabolically" healthy, with no greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease or cancer than non-obese people.

The study - the findings of which were published in the European Heart Journal - was led by Dr Francisco Ortega, a research associate affiliated to Spain's University of Granada.

Dr Ortega is also affiliated to Sweden's Karolinska Institutet but undertook the project and investigation at the University of South Carolina, US, under Professor Steven Blair.

As part of the research, 43,265 people recruited to the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study between 1979 and 2003 completed a detailed questionnaire and a physical exaimination.

Participants were tracked until they died or until the end of 2003, with 46 per cent of obese individuals found to be metabolically healthy by the research team.

It was revealed that obese-yet-healthy individuals had a 38 per cent lower risk of death than their unhealthy peers, while there were no "significant differences" compared with normal weight participants.

Dr Ortega said: "There are two major findings derived from our study. Firstly, a better cardio-respiratory fitness level should be considered from now on as a characteristic of this subset of metabolically healthy obese people.

"Secondly, once fitness is accounted for, our study shows that metabolically healthy but obese individuals have similar prognosis as metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals, and a better prognosis than their obese peers with an abnormal metabolic profile."

Click here for more information about Dr Ortega's research.

Image: Carsten Medom Madsen/shutterstock.com