Who is the fattest on the inside?
STEPPING on the scales can be a daunting prospect. But scientists warn it isn’t your weight you should be worried about, but actually the amount of harmful fats, known as visceral fats, in your body.
And those who eat the wrong foods or do not exercise enough may have a perfectly normal Body Mass Index (BMI) – the generally accepted measure of healthy weight – but still suffer from dangerously high levels of visceral fats.
Professor David Haslam, from the National Obesity Forum, says: “Visceral fat is the dangerous kind, caused by a high carbohydrate diet and sedentary behaviour.
“Unlike the blobby, more benign fat just under your skin, visceral fat is stored deeply, wrapping itself around the heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas, and even creeps through muscles.
“So you can be thin on the outside, but fat on the inside, which is actually less healthy.”
Using the BMI measurement, many professional athletes are classed as overweight or obese because they have much more muscle, which weighs more than fat, even though they are fit and healthy.
Meanwhile, those classed as healthy may have hidden stores of harmful fats that are not being diagnosed or treated, leaving them at greater risk.
But a new DEXA scan (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) now offers a way to measure hidden fats, muscle mass and bone density in less than four minutes.
Four guinea pigs agreed to try out the state-of-the-art scanner to see what was really going on under the skin, and here’s what they discovered.
■■Visit Bodyscan at bodyscanuk.com. DEXA body scan including visceral fat estimate and personal consultation. = The proportion of your total body weight that is fat. Like weight and BMI, it can be unfairly skewed by muscle mass, so a health score is of limited value.
= Fat Mass Index (how much fat you carry in relation to your height). Lower fat is better, so an
FMI below 6 for a man and 8 for a woman are good numbers to aim for.
= Lean Mass Index (essentially how much muscle in relation to your height). Above 18 for a man and 14 for a woman show healthy amounts of muscle. = Unhealthy fat around the organs. Above 100 is classified as “increased risk” of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, stroke, etc. Above 160 is classed as
“high risk”.
= a rating between 1 and 10 (where 10 is best) for the key health measures of FMI,
LMI and visceral fat, accounting for age and sex. 2 border
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