A new study finds that fat increases the bodies inflammatory activity. On the other hand, being fit lowers inflammation.

An accepted market of the inflammatory activity is the total white blood cell count. A high count is a risk factor for hear disease or other serious illness. according to researchers at the study researchersat Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

For the study, researchers monitored 450 healthy men during exercise. None of the participants had been diagnosed with a serious disease, chronic condition or were smokes. Tests showed that, overall the more body fat of a participant, the higher the white blood cell count. However, the study did find that, for participants who had a high level of physical fitness, the effect of extra body fat was negated by the higher level of exercise.

Blood tests showed that the participants with the lower white blood cells counts were the most physically fit. Participants who had higher body fat and lower levels of fitness had the highest white cell counts.

The study is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.