thoughts on skinnyfat--men specifically but all welcome

Azdak

just curious on what defines "skinny fat." i'm about 120-125ish which i believe is more than you said you weigh, but i'm training for roller derby so i have a lot of muscle. i'm still larger than you in clothes (4-6.) never really heard that term before so just trying to understand.

"Skinny fat" generally refers to a body composition where a person is within a healthy bodyweight range, or even sometimes underweight, but still has a proportionally high body fat percentage, which in turn means a lower than average LBM (aka amount of muscle) for their size.

Generally it is a consequence of really fast weight loss where measures were not taken to preserve LBM. Such measures to preserve LBM include getting sufficient protein, resistance training, and having a moderate calorie deficit. It can also happen as a consequence of years of yo-yo dieting, weight loss with excessive cardio without other preservation methods, or simply having a lifetime of minimal exercise, and then diet-alone weight loss. I'm sure there's other ways to get there that are escaping me.

If you say you have a good amount of muscle, you're not skinny fat. You don't look it in your profile pic, either. To avoid it, get sufficient protein, keep a moderate calorie deficit, and weight train.

I find it much more often that those who are "skinny fat" are those who are just born with a small frame/lower than average amount of muscle mass. Obviously, that is also combined with a lifetime of no resistance training.

I deal with hundreds of people on weight loss programs and almost none of them ever become "skinny fat". I suppose that could be due to selection bias, since I work in a fitness center, but I rarely see it even among the people who have lost weight on their own and are just starting to work out.

I don't necessarily dispute your comments, since that is conventional wisdom. I just find it curious at how few of those people--i.e. those with diet-induced "skinny fat"-- I have ever actually seen in the real world.

BTW: Good definition of "skinny fat". It's not the scale weight, height/weight ratio, or even the BMI that defines it.

But, just to clarify (and prevent more misinformation & myths) having a small frame does not mean a person will have a genetically lower than average muscle (that is actually absurd). They could even have a lot of muscle for their small size and it shows ups more easily because of that as well. More Bean gave an excellent definition. And you are correct that you have not personally seen it because you work with people that have lost weight in a healthy way (and that's great). People who have always maintained a healthy fitness and nutritious eating without dieting will not be skinny fat just because they have a small bone structure.

That would be why I mentioned "small frame size/lower than average amount of muscle mass" together. But thanks for reading only what you wanted to see.

Lol, sorry if I misunderstood you (it happens). I didn't mean this as a criticism on you personally. Just wanted to make a clarification. That seemed important to me since this concept gets misunderstood very often as you can see from the questions and confusions on this thread and all the many others (including that I also vastly misunderstood it when I first joined here, having never heard of it before mfp). Different things will matter to different people, as we are all coming from different places here and encounter different things due to our personal circumstances (and it does matter since there are young people and people with ED's and Body Dysmorphia that read these comments). Personally, when it comes to this subject, I am myself still learning and trying to understand. It's not a scientific concept, so the "criteria" is sure fuzzy. As far as I understand "skinnyfat" means being at a normal weight, but having at least 25-30% bodyfat placing one in the overweight or obese category regardless of scale weight or it just means looking loose and flabby and not firm with defined muscles. On the flip side, some people are just skinny, but people confuse that for skinny fat for reasons I don't understand, and some people just have a couple pounds of extra fat over top their muscles.

Then I misread as well. My apologies.

BinaryPulsar

:flowerforyou:

pr3ttyk1tty

thanks, good to know. i'm definitely not skinnyfat then. i get tons of protein, lift, run, bike, and i have 5 hours a week of roller derby practice. there's still some fat on me around my tummy area, but that's about it. i just know i'm shorter and weigh more than the OP who called herself "skinny fat."