A recent 12-year study that investigated the relationship between fitness, weight and death in Americans over the age of 60 shows that physical activity prolongs life regardless of body fat.

Previous studies have shown that both factors, the amount of body fat and the level of cardiovascular activity are connected with healthier older Americans. This is the first study that shows that cardiovascular fitness helps adults over 60 live longer, regardless their body fat.

The University of South Carolina study was published in the Journal of the American Medicine Association.

This is good news for almost one third of the Americans who are obese. As they fear that their health is in danger because they cannot shed the fat, everyday walking for at least half an hour or engaging in physical but recreational activities like golf, dance classes or swimming might do the trick.

The study was conducted on 2,603 people over the age of 60 from the United States. They were followed for a period of 12 years with medical checks, fitness tests and fat levels measurements. Although it had been thought that the level of fat would give a strong link to the mortality among study volunteers, actually being unfit was the major factor that raised the death risk.

Professor Steven Blair from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, who led the study said that "certainly obesity is a public health problem but...so much attention gets focused on it that people think it is the be-all and end-all and that's not true."