Can You Be Fat & Healthy?

If you eat well and work out, it may not matter if you can't fit into your jeans

By most measures, Kelly Bliss, 50, surely seems to have let herself go. The Lansdowne, Pa., resident stands 5 ft. 2 in. in her stockings but tips the scales at nearly 200 lbs. Run those numbers through the body mass index (BMI)--the statistical measure that factors height and weight to diagnose obesity--and Bliss scores higher than 35. Anything above 25 is overweight; anything above 30 is obese. In the nation's ongoing war with obesity-related health problems, Bliss is one more casualty, right?

Maybe not. In fact, we should all be as unhealthy as Kelly Bliss. Her blood pressure is often as...

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