Does being smarter and richer make you fitter?

 BMI by Race, Gender, & Socioecominic Status

According to this study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2009 which surveyed White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic males and females, yes. Here are the main points I gathered:

* Across all races, smarter people are fitter people. (BMI decreases with higher education)

* Across all races, richer people are fitter people. (BMI decreases with higher income)

* On average, Asians have the lowest BMI whereas Blacks have the highest.

* Rich or poor, smart or not, men look the same (male BMIs have little variation) while richer and smarter women are fitter (female BMIs decrease with higher education and salary).

Keep in mind that BMI or Body Mass Index which is weight scaled according to height is not body fat percentage which is how much fat you are made up of.

“Body fat percentage is a much more accurate measurement in determining if you are healthy. BMI doesn’t take into consideration how much of your weight is muscle and bone and how much of it is fat. So that means a person can have a healthy BMI, but still carry weight in their belly, which can increase their risk for heart disease.” – FitSugar

Healthy BMI for women is between 18.5 and 24.9. Healthy body fat percent for women is 21-24% and for female athletes 14-20%.

So what do you see here? Do you think that people with a higher education and more money are also fitter because they have the luxury of affording gym passes? Or do you think being fitter makes you more attractive, which therefore increases your chances of being well-off? Tell me what YOU gather from this study…should make for an interesting discussion.

NOTE: This survey was conducted to represent the make up of what the population of California looks like. So the randomly selected 37,150 subjects were 56% White, 6% Black, 13% Asian, and 25% Hispanic.