ometimes, exercise is just not enough!

You are overweight.

You have been working out religiously.

You hardly binge on 'wrong' foods.

Here's news: that's not good enough.

Why?

A recent study has found that being overweight might just take years off your life.

The study, said to be the biggest ever conducted to examine the relative benefits of being fit versus fat in the United States, says working out offsets some harmful health consequences of being overweight. But it cannot fully remove them.

Over 1,15,000 female nurses were included in the study, which found that weight and activity levels are both powerful predictors of longevity, and that being either overweight or sedentary independently increases the risk of death.

The study, published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, concluded that the healthiest people are both thin and physically active.

Dr Timothy Church, Cooper Institute, Texas, has devoted himself to research on exercise and health. He told cnn.com, 'If you're lean but you're sedentary, don't fool yourself. You're still at risk. You need to get physically active.'

Here are some statistics:

• If the mortality risk for lean active women is 1, for the overweight active, it is 1.28.
• For the obese active, it is 1.91.
• For the lean inactive, it is 1.55.
• For the overweight inactive, it is 1.64.
• For the obese inactive, it is 2.42.

~ What you can do

Experts say:

~ Try and maintain a steady diet and exercise routine.

~ Vary your exercise routine regularly, to avoid boredom and also to exercise different parts of your body.

~ A once-a-while treat is good, provided you make up for it both in your diet and workout.

~ And for those of you with the sweet tooth, here are a few tips to keep in mind during the holiday season:

1. Sure, you will have delicious food in store for you, but keep plenty of space for dessert. Have a soup instead of bingeing on all those fried starters and then going on to a full-course meal.

2. If there is more than one dessert on offer, prioritise! Go for the dessert that you get to eat rarely.

3. Chalk out a strategy before you head for any meal. Are you going to have soup and dessert? Meal and no dessert? Salad and dessert? Are you going to avoid fat and go for the carbs? Or head for the carbs and dump the fat? This will help you eat better.

4. Avoid colas, and fatty punches and milkshakes. Go for lean juices. Save all the fat calories for the dessert!