Got a belly that you can squeeze “pyung pyung”??
Normal weight obesity or skinny-fat is defined as the presence of an increased body fat percentage in an individual with normal body mass index. This is commonly seen in the South Asian population, a prevailing issue in India, where uncles and aunties (or even you and me) have “lovely and chubby bellies”. The reason could be reduced physical activity and lack of sleep. And in youths, poor nutritional habits in this digital era is a major issue.
Skinny-fat can also be caused by genetic disposition, low birth weight, maternal malnutrition, etc. These people have serious clinical implications such as prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia(high cholesterol). Some recent studies suggested that a high protein diet can help but more research needs to be done on this and yes exercise! But a study proposed that interval exercise for short duration, say, 3 sessions of 10 mins each seems to be more effective than 1 session of 30 mins.
#Source_of_study:
- Foulis, Stephen A., Julie M. Hughes, and Karl E. Friedl. “New concerns about military recruits with metabolic obesity but normal weight (“skinny fat”).” Obesity 28.2 (2020): 223.
- Kapoor, Nitin. “Thin fat obesity: The tropical phenotype of obesity.” Endotext [Internet] (2021).