Someone please explain skinny fat...

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2

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  • LindaCWy
    LindaCWy Posts: 463 Member
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    better than fat-fat.

    This is true, cause alls you gotta do now is start weight training.
  • AnitaVolpato
    AnitaVolpato Posts: 204 Member
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    I have noticed alot of cocaine users are skinny fat.. I guess cause they are wasting away.....
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    Skinny fat has a couple of definitions but one of the better ones is normal weight obesity.

    In other words whilst your weight falls within the normal range according to BMI standards you have a particularly high level of body fat at the same time. This means you can potentially suffer similar health problems to people traditionally classed as obese.

    Edit: how it happens is using severe calorie deficits which are not suitable for your body's current composition and failing to incorporate some form of resistance training / weight bearing exercise to preserve existing muscle mass.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
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    it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with former size.

    a person can be life-long "skinny fat".

    it's when a person actually has fat deposits on the interior but maybe doesn't show on the exterior. that's why physical appearances don't always reveal overall health.

    i first heard the term in the book Microserfs by Douglas Copeland, when the protagonist realized one day that he was "skinny fat".

    it is more of a ratio of muscle to fat.
  • ctooch99
    ctooch99 Posts: 459 Member
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    I would define it as someone who has the correct weight (per the scale) for their height, but who's body fat percentage is still way off the charts high - from which one can infer that they are not in shape (ie, flabby, "loose in the cage").

    Skinny fat tends to happen to people who crash diet, fad diet and focus on the scale as opposed to fitness and lifestyle changes.

    I had a relative who dropped a ton of weight in a really short period of time by going on one of those "cardboard box food" diets - no exercise, no lifestyle change, just shear starvation to lose weight. His weight was lower, granted, but when he took his shirt off at the beach my first impression of him was "he is still a fat dude, just a smaller fat dude"...
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    High body-fat percentage while still being at a healthy weight or BMI.
  • BigSupes
    BigSupes Posts: 3
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    What everyone else has said...

    Further more, to reduce the chances of this happening, incorporate weights into your regime. :)
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    I would define it as someone who has the correct weight (per the scale) for their height, but who's body fat percentage is still way off the charts high

    This exactly. That's what the term means.

    As you exercise, if you aren't eating good amounts of protein AND maintaining your muscles with resistance (heavy lifting, high-resistance cardio, etc) the muscles will burn off quickly, generally as quickly or more quickly than fat. The result is that, while the number on the scale makes you happy and you look pretty slim, you still have unhealthy amounts of fat on your frame and are at many of the same risks as someone with similar body fat percentages.

    Body fat percentage is profoundly more important than actual weight.
  • tamtamzz
    tamtamzz Posts: 142
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    OoooK. I understand now. But let me ask another question:

    I like to run, actually, I LOVE to run. It's usually not steady state, I'll do some hills, some intervals, whatever I feel like for the day. I ALWAYS eat back my calories. If I didn't, I would collapse somewhere on the street. I still have to shake off another 25 to 30 pounds, but I can see some muscle tone. I'm not particularly fond of weight training (lifting weights), but I will do some body weight training three times a week.

    Let's say I did NOT eat back my calories, and just ran the way I do now, skipped the resistance, and only ate 1000 or so calories. Would I be on my way to skinny fat?

    I have ZERO intention on doing the latter. In fact, I can't. I'm just using the scenario for illustration purposes.
  • jojo52610
    jojo52610 Posts: 692 Member
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    I lost a lot of weight very quickly in about 2 months due to stress and emotional issues(not on purpose)

    I am 5'9" I went from 177 to 142 (for my frame I should be between 152 - 173) - very unhealthy my skin hung and was loose I lost all muscle tone in my body.

    My husband and I went to join a Gym and they did a body fat measurement on me I was actually pissed I was like that's not right look how thin I am. Then the Trainer explained it - Skinny fat.

    Low or no muscle tone, low body weight
  • dmariearce
    dmariearce Posts: 4
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    i've never heard that lol...but know that i read the replies i get it. I had a friend who was like 1 size 8 but never worked out, i was a 12 and i always thought i looked thinner than her even thou she wore a smaller size, i think it makes sense she wasn't toned.
  • TheDudette
    TheDudette Posts: 174
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    better than fat-fat.

    HA!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    OoooK. I understand now. But let me ask another question:

    I like to run, actually, I LOVE to run. It's usually not steady state, I'll do some hills, some intervals, whatever I feel like for the day. I ALWAYS eat back my calories. If I didn't, I would collapse somewhere on the street. I still have to shake off another 25 to 30 pounds, but I can see some muscle tone. I'm not particularly fond of weight training (lifting weights), but I will do some body weight training three times a week.

    Let's say I did NOT eat back my calories, and just ran the way I do now, skipped the resistance, and only ate 1000 or so calories. Would I be on my way to skinny fat?

    I have ZERO intention on doing the latter. In fact, I can't. I'm just using the scenario for illustration purposes.

    Probably not, though you would find that you'd be burning through body composition more quickly and probably losing muscle faster than fat. But if you focused your eating on proteins and kept the lifting up, you'd probably be OK as long as you could maintain the athletic performance.

    But, as you've already stated, you can't keep up the athletic performance. So chances are your performance would dwindle, you'd be unable to lift as much and hence end up losing muscle faster, and you'd eventually end up burning fewer calories than you thought, and your weight loss would eventually stall. The natural answer everyone wants to apply to this problem is to further restrict calories, which leads to even poorer performance, which means more muscle loss.

    So there is a slightly elevated risk of a "slippery slope" to "skinny fat".

    You've already demonstrated you're a lot smarter than that, though.
  • Jill_newimprovedversion
    Jill_newimprovedversion Posts: 988 Member
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    It's when you're thin but still carry a high body fat percentage and a low lean mass percentage. Ideally you want that switched around giving you a fit "toned" look. It happens when some one loses weight to quickly and/or doesn't do anything to preserve muscle mass while losing weight.

    ^^ YEP, that's what I thought it meant- makes the most sense to me.

    Been there, done that. Doing it differently THIS time.
  • Bobby_Clerici
    Bobby_Clerici Posts: 1,828 Member
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    That would be an unhealthy, jiggly person with little muscle and lots of fat but a normal weight.
    They usually smoke.:smokin:
  • mgmlap
    mgmlap Posts: 1,377 Member
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    I do agree that skinny fat is when someone has higher fat content..but the fact that most people are this cause of diet or lack of exercise is wrong.
    I have a metabolic syndrome, eat right and lift weights.. my body takes forever to lose body fat. I have been on my journey for a year..lost 40 pounds..but only 7% bodyfat...I do what I can..but its a very slow process for me
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    better than fat-fat.

    Better LOOKING, maybe, but not healthier.

    This is why BMI is such a poor indicator - it makes people think that the scale tells all. It does not. Not even close.

    If you have little muscle development and a very high body fat percentage, you can look like a meth addict (all the rage in fashion magazines) and be just as much a candidate for cardiovascular complications as someone with the same body fat percentage but who happens to be carrying around a lot of lean muscle as well.

    And overweight people tend to carry around a decent amount of lean muscle - they need it to carry themselves around in daily life. Remember that someone who weighs 280 like I once did needs strong muscles just to walk around compared to someone who weighs 190 which is my goal weight. That's 90 pounds I was carrying around, which is good resistance training. Trouble is, of course, a lot of that 90 pounds happened to be fat, so my body fat percentage was pretty gruesome.
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
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    As I understand it, it's a genetic thing.

    You know that skinny person who can eat anything and not do any exercise - if you remove their clothes, chances are that they don't have the perfect six pack and actually have a mound of fat covering their waistline unless they are in their teens, in which case they are just skinny.

    And as they grow older (into their 30s), their metabolism catches up with them and they slowly but surely become fat all over unless they do something about it. That's me. That's every former slim person who is "skinny-fat" and is now wondering wtf is going on with their former UK Dress Size 8 body. It leaves people wondering why the hell I want to lose weight ("You don't need to lose weight!" "But you're slim already!"). As a child, I was mocked for being skinny and having a ribcage that you could play like a guitar.

    And as someone mentioned, the issue in terms of health is the same - visceral fat which can result in cancer.

    PS I never wore dresses. Much.
  • tuneses
    tuneses Posts: 467 Member
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    It's a term made up for those that were way too happy for losing weight and feeling good about themselves. We all need labels that make us feel like we aren't quite perfect.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    nice picture here - http://fitinyourbikini.com/flat-stomach-tips/not-all-skinny-is-the-same-are-you-skinny-fat/

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