Fat but Powerful
pawz
Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 21,293 
There is hope for @CFetters_Nacho_Lover
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Muscle power—your ability to generate force quickly—is one of the strongest predictors of longevity, even more so than being lean. This is sometimes referred to as the 'fat but powerful' paradox.
In a recent study, older adults with normal and high levels of relative muscle power had better 9-year survival than older adults with low muscle power.
Muscle power was even protective against death in older adults with high levels of body fatness measured using BMI and waist circumference.
Being fat and powerful reduced mortality just as much as being lean and powerful—by 43–45%.
Being lean and weak, however, provided no survival advantage compared to being fat and weak.
Interestingly, when body fatness was measured using body fat percentage or the fat index (body fat % normalized to height), the protective effect of muscle power was mitigated—only lean and powerful participants experienced a mortality benefit.
This highlights the continued importance of minimizing excess adiposity for long-term health, even when physical fitness is optimized.
The takeaway here isn’t to downplay the risks of obesity for longevity—maintaining a healthy weight is still critical. But fitness, particularly muscle power, deserves more attention as a key lever we can pull to improve both lifespan and healthspan. It’s one of the most actionable metrics to track and improve.
If you want to know more about muscle power for longevity and how to improve it, I’ll cover it in this week’s newsletter.
Study - PMID: 38523229
Comments
I’m gonna outlive all of you but @RaceBannon!
Strength is 2nd only to vo2 max as a predictor of longevity.
But fat, strong is a rare niche, just like fat with high vo2 max.
OK
Am I reading this wrong or is the bolded part contradicting the major claims? It basically says if you're fat you need to get not fat to really get the benefits of being strong.
Really confusing since it says fat strong is the same as lean strong, but then if you measure "fat" differently, just kidding, no benefit.
Anyway
Will be interesting to see what "muscle power" truly is for this study. Sounds a bit like another way to measure VO2 Max, which you can't really have a decent score for without good strength and power. Of course the heavier you are the lower your VO2 Max will be unless that added weight contributes to better performance (rowing, running, cycling, skiing, whatever).