When the Scales Lie: "Normal Weight Obesity"
Just when you started feeling good in your skinny jeans, a new study reveals people of average weight may actually be "normal weight obese."
Apparently, as many as 30 million Americans could be categorized in this way, meaning they're at a higher risk of obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.
6,171 Americans were involved in the study, published in the European Heart Journal. They found 20 to 30 percent of those with "normal" BMI and weight, had a high ratio of body fat to lean muscle, therefore increasing their risk of health problems.
If you have a normal BMI, and appear to be slim, you may assume you have a lower risk of health problems, which in turn could make you less conscious of eating healthy and exercising--this is where the problems begin.
Remember, body fat is the important factor when it comes to risk of disease, rather than focusing on numbers on the weighing scales, which don't show the whole picture.
What should you do?
- Realize that losing weight isn't enough.
- Exercise--especially weight lifting and resistance training is essential for cardiovascular health, and to build lean body mass.
- Forget about the weighing scales.
- Instead use a tape measure to check your waist circumference. Women should aim for less than 35 inches, and men should aim for less than 40 inches.
- For body fat percentage, below 30 percent for women, and less than 20 to 25 percent for men is considered healthy.
I agree that health is more than just ones' weight. I would add to the above comments that in addition to exercise and using a tape measurer, just focus on eating healthy and trying to get as many vegetables and fruits in your diet. I think we focus too much on "weight" and calories and should instead focus on overall health. That is why I created a blog, I'm trying a new healthy food each day and blogging about it. This has halped me focus on eating a wide range of healthy foods instead of just losing weight.
Stacy
ReplyTHANK YOU! I've been saying for years that BMI is utter and total crapola for a lot of people, especially athletes. If you're tall and slim and never work out, you'll probably have a normal BMI, but that doesn't mean you're healthy. I'm guessing a lot of supermodels probably have body fat % numbers in the 20%-25% range because they have zero muscle mass. And I know that when I was at 140 lbs, which was "overweight" for my height, I had a body fat % of about 25%.
ReplyYes! Thank you for posting this! One small step to getting more people to understand this concept! :)
ReplyThanks for all your comments guys. There's definitely a lot of misinformation out there, which gets confusing.
ReplyI recently went walking with a friend who is quite lean. Surprisingly he had real troubles and we ended up stopping and turning back. Size and shape is not an indicator of fitness, and shows how we need to accept all sizes.
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