The scales can lie: hidden fat -- Wall Street Journal article

Today, like every other day at work, I was sorting the mail. One piece of mail that comes everyday is the Wall Street Journal, which goes to my boss. On the front page I noticed a snippet of an article titled The Scales Can Lie: Hidden Fat. Of course it sparked my interest and I took that section with me on my lunch break.

The article has some interesting and alarming ideas about ideal body weight & body fat. In fact, I think it convinced me that I need to get a body fat test ASAP.

Can you be a "normal" weight and be fat at the same time? According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic; yes. They have named this concept 'normal weight obesity'. Yikes!! Considering that over one third of Americans are already obese, imagine going to the doc and being labeled normal weight obese. Unfortunately, Mayo Clinic Researchers estimate that 30 million Americans fall under this category. Yuck.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic describe normal weight obesity as a person whose body behaves like one that's obese, but is not obese. The measurement is done by BMI.

Let's take a look at a BMI chart:


BMI in my opinion is not a good measure of "normal" weight because it's an estimate of your body fat. It's calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters. In some cases, a BMI test will not accurately describe a person's fitness level and body fat. There are lots of people who exercise regularly, are considered fit, yet have a BMI over 25. Researchers of Mayo clinic have acknowledged this in their research.

So what do the researchers recommend? They advise people who may fall under the normal weight obesity category to include weight training as a part of your regular workout routine. This will help increase the percentage of lean muscle mass at the expense of body fat. Also the obvious is advised; a healthy diet

Though this information is alarming, the researchers stated that they don't recommend everybody running out to get a body fat test. The article is meant to be a wake-up call.

Well, I certainly have been woken from my sweet dreams!
What do you think?




you can read the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704762904575025313433081780.html