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"   Yesterday&amp;#039;s influx of studies about weight gain and weight loss left me a little conflicted: Should we be cool with our extra winter pounds or kick the sweets and jump on the treadmill? Then the New York Times backed up yesterday&amp;#039;s findings that being a little pudgy can help you live longer with a profile of a woman deemed to be the bastion of health by doctors in 1912. She lived healthily to the ripe old age of 91 with a BMI of 27\u2014overweight by today&amp;#039;s standards\u2014and, well, who knows what to think? So I called up someone who could advise. According to Nieca Goldberg, MD, medical director of the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women&amp;#039;s Health in New York, measuring yourself as &amp;quot;overweight&amp;quot; based solely on your BMI isn&amp;#039;t really accurate. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s certainly better than just looking at the pounds because it takes your height into account,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;But there are other studies that show that health might be more about fat distribution than just body mass.&amp;quot; If you&amp;#039;re unhealthy, she said, it can show in ways you don&amp;#039;t see in the mirror. &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;re a little overweight, you shouldn&amp;#039;t freak out. Get your cholesterol checked, and your blood sugar and blood pressure, too,&amp;quot; Goldberg advised. &amp;quot;Make sure you&amp;#039;re healthy on the inside.&amp;quot; But skinny girls, you&amp;#039;re not off the health hook. Goldberg points out that ditching your exercise plan and packing on some extra rolls won&amp;#039;t make you live longer.  So go see your doctor for a physical. If you&amp;#039;re healthy but you&amp;#039;re still not happy with how you look, focus your gym time on getting stronger and more toned instead of losing fat. You&amp;#039;ll look and feel better as a result. Follow Emma on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/news/a11243/does-bmi-matter/?click=cos_new>