Just when you think that a little weight is something to watch out for to stay healthy, a new study suggests that isn't always the case. New research suggests that skinny fat whose fats are focused on their waistlines may be at higher risk of death over the years compared to their overweight or obese counterpart.
As reported in The DPost, skinny fats have higher mortality rate than obese people whose fat are distributed regularly on hips and thighs.
Researchers looked at survey results of 15,184 adults aging between 18 and 90 as cited in Time Magazine. The participants had been under observation and had follow ups for around fourteen years. Data collected were used and to determine the risk for heart-related morality and total risk of death were linked to the distribution of fat.
Whatever the scale shows, study concludes that distribution of fat matters the most. The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine Monday.
Researchers found that people with normal weight central obesity, having normal body mass index (BMI) but a high hip-to-waist ratio had a higher risk of death compared to those who had a high BMI but has an even fat distribution.
Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity specialist at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis who wasn't involved in the research echoed his agreement with the results. "If the waist is larger than your hips, you're at [an] increased risk for disease."
"We see this with patients every day: 'My weight is fine, I can eat whatever I want,'" said study senior author Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, preventive cardiology chief at the Mayo Clinic. "These results really challenge that."
The DPost further reports that abdominal fat or an apple-shaped figure has long been considered more at risk than pear-shaped individuals or whose fats are evenly distributed on the hips and below.
Risk increases for men whose waist circumference is larger than 40 inches and women whose wait circumference is larger than 35 inches. However, health experts still focus on BMI than waistlines with the reasoning that weight increases as waist increases.
Researchers do not suggest however that obesity is healthy at all. The main point of the study is to look beyond BMI to determine the overall health of an individual.
"To better target persons at greatest risk, such as those who already have excess or increasing levels of adiposity or those with disproportionate abdominal fat in relation to BMI, these new data provide evidence that clinicians should look beyond BMI," writes Dr. Paul Poirier of Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, according to Time.
Do you agree that BMI alone does not reveal the state of health of an individual? Do you agree with the finding that skinny fat is more at risk compared to overweight individuals? Share us your thoughts by leaving your comments below.
