Background: It is well known that obesity increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, however, the association between fitness and metabolic syndrome risk factors among Koreans still need to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of obesity and physical fitness with metabolic syndrome risk factors among university students in korea.
Methods: A total of 185 (Male: 118, Female: 67) students participated in the cross-sectional study. We measured physical fitness(push-up, sit-up, 1 mile run), body mass index (BMI) and metabolic syndrome risk factors including waist-circumference (WC), fasting glucose, triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP).
Results: Results showed that 1) students with higher BMI had significantly increased WC, TG, and SBP (P < .05), 2) students with greater physical fitness had significantly decreased BMI, WC, fasting glucose and DBP (P < .05), 3) When subjects were divided into four groups: lean and fit, lean and unfit, fat and fit and fat and unfit, fat and unfit subjects showed the worst profile of metabolic syndrome risk.
Conclusion: Our study showed that improvement of physical fitness and reduction of body fat are important
factors for the prevention of metabolic syndrome in Korean university students.

Keywords: Korean university students, Physical fitness, BMI, Metabolic syndrome

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