Gary Brecka explains skinny fat, or normal weight obesity: 26% of men and 38% of women have excess body fat despite normal BMI. The scale can't detect it because it only measures total weight, not composition. Two people with identical height, weight, and age can have vastly different health risks.
There's a new term taking over the internet, and it's called skinny fat. In research, this has a name: normal weight obesity. A BMI that would still sail through any physical, sitting on top of a body fat percentage that wouldn't. And here's the number I want you to hear: 26% of the men and 38% of the women had excess body fat. More than a third of women who have never once been told they had a weight problem. The thresholds are above 25% body fat in men and above 35% in women. Which brings me to the part nobody wants to hear. You cannot detect this yourself, not with the 2 instruments you're using right now. The scale can't see it. It has one number, and the number can't tell you what the pounds are made of. 2 people, same height, same weight, same age. One is fine, one is in trouble, and the scale reports them as identical. Skinny fat is not a body you're stuck with. It's a measurement you have never taken. So here's what I want you to track instead. 4 things. 3 of them are nearly free. Number one— Whoa. Ultimate. Human.
