I am sure by now most of you have heard the term “Skinny Fat” or “Normal Weight Obesity.” This has been a subject talked about numerous times on Super Human Radio and other media outlets. But just in case you are living under a rock and haven’t heard this term used researchers define Normal Weight Obesity as a condition of having a normal BMI with high body fat percentages. This new type of patient is at risk for metabolic disorders as well as risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Think about this…obesity is defined as having excess body fat. Now researchers are saying that people who appear skinny on the exterior may have excess body fat putting them at risk for all of the same diseases that a seemingly overweight person may have.  

Now let’s take this concept a bit further…as Carl Lanore of Super Human Radio has said on numerous occasions BMI is flawed! BMI does not discriminate between body fat and lean muscle. And for those of you, who may be “skeptical” of this flaw, feel free to “Google” two Mayo Clinic studies from 2006 and 2007 suggesting this criterion. Having said this, maybe we, as well as the Medical Orthodoxy, need to shift the focus from the scale or BMI to having our body fat assessed.

So, let’s explore body fat assessment. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard women say they are afraid to lift weights because they don’t want to look like a man or they don’t want too much muscle. My first reaction is what is too much muscle? Unless one is taking large amounts of drugs I feel relatively sure that too much muscle shouldn’t be a concern. And, dieting alone will eliminate weight but it definitely will not tone anything. As a matter of fact if one diets without lifting to tone and build you should expect to lose muscle. Skinny does not equal healthy!!! Your bone mineral uptake can be increased through resistance training. Both the effects of load baring exercises on bone mineral uptake, as well as an increase in muscle, make bones stronger. We need to feed our bones and lifting weight equals’ feeding our bones!   I probably don’t need to mention this but I will just in case…Aerobic type exercises will get your heart pumping and burn some calories…it will NOT build muscle!! Only weight bearing exercises will build muscle! Now let’s get back to exploring body fat, when was the last time you had your body fat tested? My current journey has lead me to numerous body fat assessment sessions. I fell into the category of following the number on the scale. I can thankfully say that has all changed now! I now know and understand the importance of lean body mass. Losing body fat while gaining muscle is definitely a science that I wish more people understood. Especially women…we are the most prone to being skinny fat! So just because your scale registers a certain number or you wear a size 4 dress, this doesn’t mean that you have low body fat percentages.   If you are not engaging into some form of muscle building routine than you too may be at risk of being skinny fat or have Normal Weigh Obesity. Please start exploring you options now before it’s too late!!