Is Your Normal Weight Unhealthy?

If you can read or watch TV you already know that it is not good to be overweight, worse to be obese and just as bad to not be doing any regular physical activity. A recent report published in the May 26,2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine, describes the results of a research project that measured specific molecules or metabolites in the bloodstreams of people who exercised. Scientists were able to see the complicated metabolic effects that take place in our bodies during and after exercise.

The research showed that the more active you are the more your body uses fat burning metabolites. It also reported that the better shape you are in, the more fat your body will burn even when you are not exercising. What is more, even less fit individuals will start burning fat once they start exercising.

The program talks about nutrition, another area that doctors are concerned about because people on diets usually cut out their needed intake of vitamins and minerals. This is not uncommon for doctors to notice because 1 out of 3 Americans is trying to lose weight. To test the nutritional effects of some of the more popular diet plans, Stanford University assigned 300 obese women to one of these diets: Atkins, Zone, LEARN and Ornish.

They learned that by cutting 500 calories a day, the women also reduced their intake of many nutrients. Interestingly, the reduction in dietary vitamin E was the most pronounced with more than 65 percent not getting the Estimated Average Requirement. Women on the Zone diet did better in their intake of vitamins A, E, C and K and did not lose any other nutritional areas. The conclusions was that diets which encourage moderate but not extreme carbohydrate reductions and increase the use of veggies and beans work best.

What is also critical is knowing whether your normal weight could be unhealthy for you. Apparently it is not enough to look at your bathroom scale or to your body mass index or BMI. Your BMI is a measure of what your weight is in relation to your height to help you figure out if you are healthy. For example, normal BMI is 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight is 25 to 29.9 and obese is over 40. You can calculate your own BMI at the site for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

You also need to consider your levels of fat. Part of the problem is that BMI can be misleading. If you are very muscular, for instance, you may have a false high BMI because it does not account for the weight of the muscle. Besides, BMI does not factor in what is called central obesity which is when weight is carried around the abdomen and considered an increased disease risk.

Mayo Clinic did a research study in 2008 and identified the term normal weight obesity. This takes place when a person has a normal BMI but a large percentage of body fat, such as more than 30 percent for women and 20 percent for men. They observed over 2000 normal weight adults, men and women, and found that over half of them had normal weight obesity or NWO. They estimate that up to 30 million Americans have this condition.

The problem is people with normal weight obesity do not have much muscle mass and their bones are not very dense. This condition is more likely to take place in elderly people. People with NOW are also more likely to have metabolic syndrome which often leads to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. An earlier study reported that NOW women had higher biomarkers of inflammation putting them at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.

If you are skinny it is unlikely you have NOW. If someone is overweight they already know their BMI is high. It is the folks in the middle range that need to measure their body fat.

The answer to having a healthy weight is exercise. If you are dieting and losing weight you could be also losing muscle. A combination of aerobic exercise and strength or resistance training exercise that involves all muscle groups is probably where you need to look. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults, age 18 to 64, do the following:

2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate intensity or 1 hour and 15 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

Increase to 5 hours a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity or 2 hours and 30 minutes weekly of vigorous intensity physical activity for extra health benefits.

Muscle strengthening activity for all major muscle groups at least 2 days weekly is probably where you need to focus.