You probably know somebody who just seems to eat whatever fatty and sugary foods they like and still be skinny.
In fact you sometimes hear these people complain that "they can't put on weight". "Poor bugger" we think in utter envy.
The reason is that we are all born with a particular body type, which is part of our genetic outfit
just like our height, hair colour and eye colour. This does not mean we have to resign to the fact that
we look the way we look: diet and exercise are very powerful tools for making some changes that
make us look more the way we would like to look. However, our
body type tells us a lot about our
dietary and exercise requirements and our realistically achievable goals.
Once we understand our body type
and what causes its different features we can work on improving it.
This was not considering body types and ignored the fact that muscle weighs much more than fat and could result in an
athletic person (mesomorph or android type) showing as "overweight" and a person with small bone structure, very little muscle
and a lot of fat (ectomorph or thyroid type) showing
as "normal weight".
Many studies have shown that the "ideal weight" as a figure is irrelevant with respect to general health.
The concept of a "Healthy weight range" is much more appropriate. Only when we exceed the upper level of the weight range
for our height, a significant increase in risk of diabetes and heart disease has been observed.
However, the appropriate way of using Healthy weight ranges will have to consider your body type, including ratio of
muscle to fat, as well as body weight.
It has also been demonstrated that the distribution of the body fat
is very relevant: fat stored around the hips and thighs (pear shaped individuals) is much less of a problem in terms of health risk
than fat stored around the abdomen (apple shaped individuals). Abdominal fat is largely stored around the internal organs
causing physical restriction and irritation. The risk of heart disease in apple shaped men is increased 2.5 times and
in apple shaped women 8 times as compared to other individuals.
Body Mass Index
The Body Mass Index attempts to provide a measure for healthy body weight range, taking into account height and
body weight. However, it does not take fat and muscle content into account either, which can lead to an athletic
person showing as obese.
Determining body fat content is not simple and results can vary greatly depending on the method.
Read more about how body fat content can be determined
Over the past few years a huge amount of new scientific knowledge about the funtcion of
fat cells has become available, which revolutionises the way we think about body fat and weight issues.
It has been established that fat around the waist (apple shape) is much more of a health risk than
fat around the hips and thighs (pear shape). Consequently, it has been
suggested to use a ratio of waist versus hip circumference to determine healthy weight or rather,
healthy body shape. No standards are currently available though.
Read more about new discoveries on body fat...
