Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston measured a variety of risk factors for heart disease among more than 27,000 healthy middle-aged women participating in the ongoing Women's Health Study.

Being either overweight or inactive each independently raised risk factors for heart disease, the researchers found. While women at any weight reduced their risks by exercising, being overweight appeared to be worse than being inactive, the researchers found. Even thin couch potatoes had lower risks than active women who were just a little overweight, the researchers found.

But that doesn't mean being thin is enough, the researchers warned: Thin women who do not exercise still face an increased risk of heart disease -- the leading killer of women.

"We don't want women to get the idea that it's okay to be a couch potato just because they are thin," said Samia Mora, who led the study, being published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Mora noted that women with the lowest risk were those who were both physically active and of normal weight.

More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...006032101556_pf.html

Official Research Conclusion:

Conclusions High BMI was more strongly related to adverse cardiovascular biomarker levels than physical inactivity. However, within BMI categories, physical activity was generally associated with more favorable cardiovascular biomarker levels than inactivity.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/295/12/1412

That is so true. My sister is the size of a pretzel but she doesn't eat healthy nor feels she has to exercise.