[aruanan]

Adding to the uncertainty, say the researchers, "no previous study has addressed the impact of caloric intake, physical activity and body weight (all three considered together) on CVD risk."

This really isn't true. Stephen Blair at The Cooper Institute in Dallas has been studying the effects of physical exercise on CVD in the context of obesity or lack of it. They had already come to the conclusion that, in men, sufficient physical activity offset several risk factors for CVD (obesity, type II diabetes, smoking, HBP) even in men considered at risk due to percentage body fat. Overweight men with physical exercise were much less likely to die from CVD than lean, inactive men.

The implication is that it isn't being fat that will kill you but being fat and inactive and that you're more likely to be inactive if you're fat and fat if you're inactive.

[Explorer89]

Overweight men with physical exercise were much less likely to die from CVD than lean, inactive men.

Purely anecdotal: my father is really overweight, but jogged every day at lunch (the joke being that he was running up to the Custard Stand!) and now that his knees have disintegrated, he power-walks every day. As heavy as he is, he only has moderate blockage being taken care of by one stint (sp?). His much leaner best buddy died a few years back of a massive heart-attack....but this guy was a heavy, heavy smoker. My dad's cardiologist told him that he was better off being heavy than a smoker.