A Georgia study comparing teenagers' fitness and fatness levels found fatness led to unhealthy amounts of lipids and cholesterol in the blood.
The study of 400 high school students was done by the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and determined fatter teens had higher levels of triglycerides and higher ratios of total cholesterol to the protective HDL cholesterol.
The study showed the leanest teens -- those with less than 25 percent body fat -- had the best lipid/lipoprotein profiles.
"Fitness is important ... but when you put them together it looks like fatness is more important in teens," said Dr. Bernard Gutin, exercise physiologist and professor emeritus of pediatrics and physiology.
"We think the atherosclerotic process, the building up of fat and other material in the artery wall that ultimately ends up causing a heart attack when the person is in his 40's, 50's or 60's, starts in childhood," Gutin said.
The findings appear in the July issue of Pediatric Research.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
