Fitness – way for longevity…

The new study involved data collected between 1976 and 2000 on 116,564 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing project in which thousands of nurses are being tracked for years to study various factors affecting health. Those who were physically active for at least 3 1/2 hours each week were considered active -- and therefore &to=http://english.pravda.ru/fun/2002/05/20/28964.html' target=_blank>fit. Lean was defined as having a body mass index -- a standard measurement of height and weight -- below 25.

The results show that "physical activity attenuates the effects of obesity, but it's far from removing all the increased mortality associated with obesity," Hu said.

The researchers found people who had surgery bypassing their large intestine were 23 per cent below their previous weight after two years, and still 16 per cent lower after 10 years.

But dieters reported no weight loss over the same periods of time, and even grew slightly heavier, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. We did not expect to find that there is also a very strong inverse relationship - &to=http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=14392' target=_blank>obesity leads to low physical activity and weight loss breaks the vicious cycle.