What exactly is skinny fat?

http://www.crossfitsouthbay.com/2011/05/skinny-fat/


This website has great info on what is Skinny fat !!!

This is a good article, obviously very heavy on the advertisement for crossfit, but what irritates me is that it doesn't talk about nutrition at all. What you do for exercise is only like 20% of how you look. You aren't going to look toned, lean, and decrease body fat without changing what you eat. Not a very wholistic approach, imo.

Because that lean muscle mass is very, very important. The less you have, the slower your metabolism. And lean muscle mass is more than just muscle. It's your bones, ligaments, tendons, connective tissue, (also water). That muscle mass will keep you aging well.

Being skinny-fat is just as unhealthy as being fat-fat. And excessive cardio will make you skinny fat. It means your body broke down muscle to lose weight rather than burned fat from your fat storage. I though the entire point of diet and exercise was to lose body fat, not muscle mass.

What's the point in losing weight if you aren't healthy?

One in five diabetics is thin. THIN DOES NOT MEAN HEALTHY!!

skinny fat looks good with cloths on, not off.

Exactly!! And I want to LOOK GOOD NAKED!!

LGN RULES!!

http://www.crossfitsouthbay.com/2011/05/skinny-fat/


This website has great info on what is Skinny fat !!!

This is a good article, obviously very heavy on the advertisement for crossfit, but what irritates me is that it doesn't talk about nutrition at all. What you do for exercise is only like 20% of how you look. You aren't going to look toned, lean, and decrease body fat without changing what you eat. Not a very wholistic approach, imo.

Most Crossfitters follow Paleo/Primal - based on real, whole food the body was designed to eat. And it's true. Body composition is like 80% diet and the other 20% is a combination of genetics and exercise.

My sister in law is definitely skinny fat. She has never weighed more than 105 lbs and she does not exercise and I do not think I have ever seen her drink anything but Mt. Dew and have never seen her eat anything but McDonalds and Taco bell. I am not joking! They do not come over for dinner because she does not eat regular food. She has no muscle tone, and her stomach is always bloated presumably from high sodium intake. She always has dark circles under her eyes etc. But to look at her, she is a size 1, nice shaped bum in her pants, and all around fit looking when in clothes. You can tell when she is wearing shorts or a swimsuit though that she has no definition!

I get the whole idea behind this. But I can't help thinking the phrase is crazy. Now we're even calling skinny people fat? C'mon.

It's not about calling skinny people fat... it's saying that just because one is skinny, it doesn't necessarily mean they are healthy... on the inside... skinny obese people can still have higher body fat percentatges, fatty livers, clogged arteries, weak lungs, type 2 diabetes and all the other unhealthy attributes commonly associated with overweight/obese people. It has little to do with appearance and everything to do with their health.

Actually, it is calling skinny people fat. Thus, the term skinny/fat. I guarantee most people who don't train would have to look that up, which they probably wouldn't. They'd hear "fat" and think you were calling them fat/fat. Not to mention you'd probably hurt their feelings and ruin their day. As for health concerns, being fit can only take you so far. Genetics does play its own role. (And no, I'm not saying fat people should blame being fat on genetics. I'm just saying that because of genetics even fit people can be susceptible to certain health-related issues.)

Except that people associate being skinny with being "fit" so that doesn't necessarily work either. And really only a Doctor can tell if you are "skinny fat" or "skinny obese" (as I have always heard it called, since articles about it started coming out in magazines and blogs over a year ago (the first time I saw this term was in Self Magazine in 2009)) outside of body fat percentage anyway.... and I don't know anyone that will go up to someone and say "you're skinny fat because your doing (blah blah blah)", so unless you come across a spiteful person I don't see this term hurting anyones feelings or ruining their day (and sometimes, bluntness is necessary to light a fire under someones butt)... Besides, since the idea behind the term is body fat percentage and it's toll it takes on the body and the organs, I see this as a quite accurate term. And yes, genetics DO play a role, but study's have shown that eating right and being active can reduce the risks of certain diseases and illnesses.

BTW, here is the first blurb I have read on the subject:

"You know that friend, the one who eats with abandon, shuns the gym and never gains an ounce? She may not be as lucky as she looks: Half of normal-weight women have body-fat percentages above 30 percent, commonly considered the cutoff for good health, according to a study from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. And these skinny-obese women are more likely to die of a heart attack than fit-within women who are overweight but get 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (so they're fit and fat), other research shows. Sure, the ideal is to be slim and fit, but thinness isn't always attainable. Don't get frustrated—get active." http://www.self.com/health/2009/01/are-you-skinny-obese

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I personally never heard of this term until I came here. So I finally looked it up on Google and all I can work out is its people who are thin with no muscle definition! Is that what it means and if so what's so wrong with that? A lot of the pictures under that where of people with bodies I could only dream of having. So is that what it means or have I got it completely wrong?

Genetics is not destiny. You can be pre-disposed to something but your environment and lifestlye and the foods you put in your body will decide whether or not those genes get turned on. (this is your mitchondrial DNA - you can control this DNA based on your lifestyle choices).

You can only control it to a point and how much varies greatly from person to person. Some have little to no control over their genetic destiny.

Unfortunately? Me. I do lift weights, but I'm convinced my six year old daughter is stronger than me. Someday I'll get that fat% down where it belongs... -=sigh=-

I feel your pain, my 9 yo daughter has 8 pack abs, I am so jealous!

"Excessive" exercise of any kind can be unhealthy. But doing cardio only will not make you unhealthy, and it won't make you skinny fat. It's quite possible to get a low BF% with cardio only. And a good cardio workout can cause an increase in metabolism for more than 1/2 a day. Cardio exercises use muscles. Your body is not going break down muscles that are being used.

Sure it will. Particularly if they are not being fed properly, which happens quite often with people who binge on cardio. Not to mention all the muscles that are *not* being worked and are ripe for catabolization.

Yes, IF. Men, especially young men, can bulk up their muscles, but it's quite possible for a woman to lift heavy and be skinny fat if she doesn't eat right, just as it's possible to do cardio and not eat right and be skinny fat.

But that is the fault of diet, not the cardio exercise. Whether all the muscles are being worked depends on what type of cardio you do. If all you do is run, then your arms probably won't have much definition. But your legs will and you won't necessarily be fat, because it's completely possible to obtain a low BF% and be healthy with running as your only exercise.

Its HARD to build muscle. it can be work to maintain it...its EASY to lose it.

thats why its valued.

I just don't buy that. It's easy to build muscle to a certain point and then maintain it. That point will vary greatly from person to person based on many things including age and sex. But at that point where you stop gaining easily but can maintain with moderate exercise is likely the amount of muscle you need to live healthily. It might not be as pumped or as thin as you wish you were, but what we wish and what our body needs to be heatlhy are often not the same thing.

Will gaining more muscle make you more healthy? Possibly, but not certainly. Just because you work hard and gain enough muscle to lift, squat, push, pull, etc. XXX weight, does not mean that your body needed that in order to be healthy.

skinny fat looks good with cloths on, not off.

Dammit. I wanna look good naked.

ditto. but, that's not going to happen, ever for me.

I have loose skin which can give off the appear of skinny fat but my body fat percentage is 10. Its tricky.

Doubtful. Very doubtful. Women's essential body fat is around 10-12%. Looking at your picture I can tell without a doubt you aren't 10%.

2. You seem to think that gaining muscle is something that you do AFTER you lose the fat. Building lean muscle is the best way to burn the fat away to begin with.

I'll take that one step further and say it's more a matter of retaining muscle than building it. If you're carrying around an extra 30-50-whatever amount of pounds everywhere, you probably have a decent amount of muscle. Eat right and exercise to keep it.

Skinny fat, in my opinion, is the result of dieting with the main goal being the number on the scale and losing it as quickly as possible. People who immediately set themselves to lose 2# a week, especially if they only have 10-20 pounds to lose, are setting themselves up to be skinny fat. Then they lose the weight, aren't happy with the results because they lost just as much muscle as fat, and think they need to lose even MORE weight.

If they'd set out to lose a half pound a week, and monitored their progress by measurements and photos, they'd probably have reached their goal body long before they reached their goal weight, because the majority of the weight they lost would have been fat.

yes.

Easy = Eating a healthy diet and regular moderate to high intensity exercise. Certain point = the point where you stop gaining with that level exercise. (how much muscle you had to begin with will determine how much, if any, you gain)

Many of these posts make it sound as if you do this you will at some point you will suddenly start losing muscle and gaining fat unless you constantly keep increasing the intensity of your workout. That is not true.

If you were very obese before starting, it's possible to lose some muscle and still have enough to live healthily because it might not take as much muscle for you to exercise at 130 lbs as it did just to carry around 300 lbs.

uhh.. the bold part IS true for some of us.
If i stopped lifting, and did your cardio plain.. I would start losing muscle.... now if I dont maintain enough cardio to offset the metabolic drop from the muscle loss, I would gain fat.. Or i could eat less.. but why would I want to do that when im enjoying what I eat?

also, why would I want to do regular moderate to high intensity exercise? thats boring.
Id rather just hit weights 3x a week and not worry about it.