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Scientists are now talking about a new class of people at risk for heart disease; they are called the ‘skinny obese’. Perhaps you know somebody in that category? The skinny obese eat whatever they want without gaining weight. The skinny obese stay skinny without working out. (I usually call them something else but I can’t mention that here.) But while many consider these people ‘lucky’, Mayo clinic researchers consider them ‘at risk’.
Scientists at the Mayo Clinic have discovered that too much body fat is associated with early signs of heart disease, regardless of whether a person is considered overweight. Sometimes, the scale lies! Mayo Clinic cardiologist Franciso Lopez-Jiminez, M.D. calls this syndrome ‘normal-weight obesity’. Skinny people should not assume they are healthy just because they fit nicely into their jeans!
There are many people with normal BMIs who have too much body fat. A study at the NIH looked at data from over 2,000 normal-weight adults and found that almost half had too much body fat! And those normal-weight adults with too much body fat were much more likely to have diabetes, heart disease and other weight-related abnormalities than normal-weight adults with normal body fat levels.
It seems that the internal fat that sits around the vital organs (and which can’t be seen from the outside) is even more dangerous than the external fat that sits under the skin (and is more obvious). So you really can’t judge a book by its cover!
A study from the Imperial College in London found that people who maintain their weight through diet had more dangerous, internal fat than those who maintained their weight with exercise.
The most dangerous part of all of this? Skinny obese people mistakenly think they are healthy and aren’t as careful as they need to be. Thin people can get heart attacks and diabetes!
All of these studies confirm what many have know for a while; fat but active people may be healthier than skinny obese people! “Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit,” said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.
Remember, the goal is to be healthy, not just thin. And studies are showing if you want to be healthy, you absolutely must exercise!
