Is it healthier to be fit but fat than it is to be thin and out of shape?

That’s a question that’s getting more attention in the medical community and for which there is even a name: the obesity paradox, the New York Times reports.

As more studies show chronic disease patients who are overweight or moderately obese actually live longer than normal-weight patients suffering from the same illnesses, medical experts are re-thinking the conventional way of looking at disease and body fat, the newspaper reports.

“More often than not, cardiovascular fitness is a far more important predictor of mortality risk than just knowing what you weigh,” says Glenn Gaesser, author of “Big Fat Lies” and director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University.

To read the complete New York Times story, go here.