Prudence and Madness

So, you think, if you are thin, you are not obese? Think again. BMI isn’t the only indicator of obesity.

…measuring body fat percentage, and not just BMI, could be an important part of preventing obesity-related ills, the researchers conclude. (yahoo! news)

This means that, even if by computation your BMI is within the normal range, your body could still have excess fat. And this could mean that some of the pencil-thin models you see on FashionTV or the glamorous, touched-up celebrities in the glossy mags are actually more obese than you are.

These people who have a normal weight but with high body fat percentage have what researchers called “Normal-Weight Obese”, or NWO, Syndrome (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2007).

People with NWO syndrome, luckily, do not have metabolic conditions that typically plague obese persons like elevated blood cholesterol and sugar levels and elevated blood pressure. They are, however, at risk of developing obesity and having cardiovascular diseases in the future.

In a study conducted by the research team, which first described NWO syndrome, led by Dr. Antonino de Lorenzo, conducted a study involving 20 women who met the NWO syndrome definition, 20 normal-weight women, and 20 women who are overweight, based on their BMI, and with body fat percentage greater than 30%. The researchers found out that the NWO group had higher levels of inflammatory proteins than the normal-weight women. The research group attributed this higher levels of inflammatory proteins, which could be implicated in the gradual buildup of artery-clogging plaques, to the excess fat found in women in the NWO group. This may have been the reason why this group is at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

But, unfortunately, most of these women with NWO syndrome are not aware of these risks because they think that they are “healthy”.

The lesson of this study is that body size or thinness is not a measurement of health. A woman who is of average size may be even healthier than a person, who may be thinner, but with more body fat percentage.

So, folks, concentrate on keeping a healthy lifestyle (eating right, having regular exercise, and “clean living”) rather than on simply losing the “weight”. A healthy life is what matters; the shapely body that comes with it is just a bonus.