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Even though you may be "normal weight," you may still have too much body fat. This will negatively impact your health. So, you can't just concentrate on the weigh scales.


You need to know where you are fat no matter what your Body Mass Index (BMI) may be. You can be skinny with high body fat (skinny-fat). You may also be normal weight obese. Too much body fat is not good even if you have a good BMI.

If you don't combine healthy, managed nutrition with consistent weight training and interval cardio exercise, you probably have high body fat even if you are a skinny person due to genetics.

Its good to know your weight but body fat percentage is much more important as it relates to your health.

Your body's composition (fat mass and muscle mass) is the key to real body transformation. Your BMI would be a good starting point.

Body mass index looks at overall body fat, whereas body composition reveals where you are fat. Belly fat (visceral) is the worst kind of fat and it has been proven to spread toxins into the internal organs which leads to health problems such as heart disease and cancer.

In a study led by Eric J. Jacobs, PhD, American Cancer Society strategic director, Pharmacoepidemiology, researchers examined the association between waist circumference and the risk of death among 48,500 men and 56,343 women age 50 and older who had taken part in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, a subset of the larger Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II).

Participants filled out detailed questionnaires about their health and lifestyle, and also measured their waist size with a tape measure. They were then tracked for 9 years.

“We were interested in looking at waist size because it’s strongly correlated to fat tissue in the abdomen, which is the most dangerous kind of fat issue,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs and his colleagues found that people with very large waists (47 inches or larger in men, 42 inches or larger in women) had approximately twice the risk of death compared to those with the smallest waists (35 inches in men, 30 inches in women) during the study period.

And, this is the interesting part about the study: it didn't matter if the person was normal weight, overweight or obese (according to body mass index).

“We found a pattern showing that expanding waist size was linked to a greater risk of dying regardless of body weight,” said Jacobs. “Similarly, people with the smallest waist sizes had the lowest risk. The take home message here is watch your waist size regardless of your weight.”

Read the following in this Mayo Clinic article:

1. Yes. You can have a normal weight, but if your body fat percentage is high enough, you may be considered obese — a situation known as normal weight obesity. Normal weight obesity means you may have the same serious health risks as does someone who's obese. Obesity is defined as having an excessive amount of body fat — not as weighing too much.

A formula called body mass index (BMI) is used to determine whether you're at a healthy weight for your height. But BMI doesn't tell the whole story because it doesn't measure body fat. So you may have a normal BMI while your body fat percentage is high enough to increase health risks.

2. Like obesity, normal weight obesity may increase your risk of serious health problems, including:

--Heart disease
--Diabetes
--Abnormal cholesterol level, in which your triglyceride level is high, but your HDL ("good") cholesterol level is low
--High blood pressure
--Metabolic syndrome

Its the same story---eat right, burn fat, lose weight. Download your free reports below to get started!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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