Fitness versus Fatness

Further Reading

Blair, S. N. (2009). Physical inactivity: the biggest public health problem of the 21st century. British journal of sports medicine, 43(1), 1-2.[full text]

Bouchard, C., Blair, S.N., Haskell, W.L. (eds) (2012) Physical Activity and Health (2nd Ed). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics [google books]

Cavill, N., Hillsdon, M., Anstiss, T. (2011) Brief interventions for weight management. Oxford: National Obesity Observatory [full text]

Dugdill, L., Crone, D. and Murphy, R. (Ed.) (2009) Physical activity & health promotion: evidence-based approaches to practice. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell [google books][chapter 1]

Hardman, A.E. and Stensel, D.J.(2009) Physical Activity and Health: The evidence explained. (2nd Ed) Oxon, Routledge [companion website][ch 1: Assessing the evidence]

Larson-Meyer, D. E., Redman,I., Heilbronn, l. K. , Martin, C. K. and Ravussin, E. (2010) Caloric Restriction with or without Exercise: The Fitness versus Fatness Debate. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 152–159. [full text]

Murphy M H, Blair S N, Murtagh E M. (2009) Accumulated versus continuous exercise for health benefit: a review of empirical studies. Sports Medicine 39(1): 29-43

Weiler, R, Stamatakis, E., Blair, S (2010) Should health policy focus on physical activity rather than obesity? Yes. BMJ 340:c2603 [full text][pdf]

Williams, G., Fruhbeck, G. (2009) Obesity: Science to practice Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell [google books] [chapter 1: History of obesity]

Further Resources

• A podcast by Stephen Blair for The British Journal of Sports Medicine: an interview with Stephen Blair in which he discusses the wealth of evidence his research has built up on the benefits of exercise, why physical inactivity is a bigger problem than obesity, and how much and of what we should all be doing. to go to the BMJ/BJSM page click here.