Do you know that you don’t have to be overweight to have too much body fat? You can weigh in at what you think is your ideal range and normal body size, but still be considered obese and thus, at risk for future heart problems. This phenomenon of “normal weight obesity” is the focus of a report by the Mayo Clinic, whose authors estimate that as many as 30 million Americans fall into this category. An informative feature story about this appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s HeartBeat Column this week.
Apparently, what’s most critical in evaluating whether you’re really fit or just acceptable is not your BMI score, the traditional measure for obesity, but how much body fat you’re carrying around. If you don’t have access to a gym that has equipment for measuring your body composition, a simple way to estimate if you are really fit is to measure your waist or use a metric called the waist-to-hip ratio (are you an apple or pear?). Many research studies have proven that fat stored around the middle (a particular problem for post-menopausal women) doubles the risk of death from stroke, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Why? Dr. Joann Manson, a Harvard endocrinologist explained in an NPR interview that “abdominal fat cells tend to be more active in producing hormones and chemical messengers that cause inflammation throughout the body.”
So, if you’re on a weight loss diet, be sure to include exercise, particularly weight training, to ensure that you’re building lean muscle as you lose weight. And don’t think you’re sitting pretty just because you’ve reached your ideal weight. If your percentage of body fat is still high, you’re not fit, you’re just at a (barely) acceptable level.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
So much of the information put out for women in menopause is ineffective and irrelevant. Tell a woman who goes to the gym everyday for 45 minutes to run on the treadmill that she should lose the 10 pounds that she has gained during menopause is unfair. In my 30 years of experience helping people be better in their bodies, I have found that women absolutely need to change their approach to fitness during this time of their lives. Repetitive movements such as most cardio workouts will do more damage at this time than actual good. The last thing a woman needs is to break down in her joints. This is a time for working to stimulate the bone and bring it back to a healthier more youthful state so that it can work with the soft tissue (tendons, ligaments, and muscles). Direct bone stimulation such as Yamuna Body Rolling will improve bone quality, muscle tone, and boost metabolism without pounding the body.
Leave a Comment