By Daniel Q. Haney / Associated Press
There is little doubt among health professionals that being obese is a health hazard. But what about the borderline plump � all those people with a body mass index between 25 and 29 who, according to the charts, are overweight?
Government health agencies often lump all degrees of overweight together, noting that over 60 percent of Americans are too heavy. But more than half of these people are overweight, but not obese.
Some in the world of diet and health feel that perhaps the entire category called overweight causes much anxiety for nothing.
�A completely phony category� is what University of Colorado attorney Paul Campos calls overweight. He argues the real health problem is too little exercise.
Many experts contend the biggest hazard of being overweight is what almost inevitably comes next.
�Fat people get fatter,� says Dr. Peter McCullough, head of the weight control center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.