Fat but fit: obese people can be healthy and in good metabolic shape
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Defining obesity
It is well known that obesity, or simply being overweight, can lead to a number of serious health-related problems. Some of these include heart disease, high blood pressure, aching joints and even cancer. But how do doctors determine whether someone is a ‘healthy’ weight, overweight or obese? Well they use what is called the body mass index, or BMI for short, and they calculate this using a person’s weight and height. People with a BMI of 25 or more are considered overweight while those with a BMI of over 30 are obese. To get more accurate results they also measured the body fat percentage of people using skin fold calipers. For men, a body fat percentage less than 25 is normal and anything over is considered obese – for women that cut off stands at 30.
What does the new study say?
But it’s not all black and white. This new study found that some obese people, people with a BMI over 30, are actually ‘metabolically healthy’. This means that they don’t show any o...
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