Are you skinny fat?

Whether someone is socially deemed "skinny" or deemed "Fat" is completely relative. You may have an individual who has high expectations of their body type and classifies themselves as fat, while others may not. People may think someone is too skinny, where as that person may indeed fall into the desired weight range for a healthy individual of their height and age. Either way, our views on the matter are sometimes skewed and biased and sometimes our fears of falling into either category are unwarranted...

But the term "Skinny-Fat" is one that is fairly new and has started appearing on health segments on morning TV shows, creeping into diet and nutrition jargon, and even having multiple definitions under urban dictionary. But with any newly coined term comes some confusion with exactly what it means. There are conflicting meanings, depending on whether you are talking to bodybuilders or diet and nutrition experts, so I have pulled together a few of my favorites;

·         Skinny Fat is when someone falls under a healthy weight range, however their body composition is flabby rather than toned
·      Someone who appears thin and has a good BMI, but has a high percentage of body fat
·         When someone looks lean in clothes, but if flabby underneath
·         When a person is thin, but does not eat healthy and eats junk food
·         Someone who is thin, but has localized fatty areas, like a muffin top or love handles (hips) or butt and thighs.

So you can see that it is far from a medically diagnosed term, but you get the drift, and I'm sure after reading some of the definitions above, you may know of someone, maybe even yourself (as you lift your shirt and stare at yourself in the mirror) that falls into this category.

Do you know what it means to be skinny fat? Just because you are not obviously visually overweight, that does not mean that you are healthy by any means. There are many people that appear to be thin and healthy, but the truth is, unless they are eating a healthy diet and regularly exercising, there is nothing healthy about them. Some people have faster metabolisms and can eat fast food and processed junk without seeing it appear on their thighs or midsection, but does this mean they are in good shape or healthy? The truth is, you can be "skinny fat", which means that despite appearing to be healthy and in shape, you are actually in poor health and not in shape at all.

Products and advertisements that promise a loss of weight without exercise or dieting are really only telling you part of the story. Those diet pills and chemical products that do work, though most do not, really only eat away the fat without making you healthy or really doing anything natural at all. There is a big difference between fitness and weight that most people do not comprehend. To the people who design these advertisements, losing the weight is all that matters, no matter how you reach that ideal weight. The truth is, fitness and health are what really matter, and if you are not trying to obtain fitness and health, then you are doing something wrong. The truth is this: Weight does not equal fitness.

Losing weight without obtaining health and fitness is not doing it right. Just because you are thin, that simply does not mean that you are fit. The world is full of people who are "skinny fat". What really matters when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight is being fit, in shape, and taking good care of your body in the process. It is actually entirely possible for a thin person to have a high percentage of body fat, higher in some cases than people who are visually overweight.

Simply losing weight does not mean you have a healthy heart. Getting fit and eating healthfully on the other hand can guarantee an improvement in heart health. Losing weight alone does not lower your cholesterol, but regular exercise and healthy eating will. Simply losing weight is not going to lower your risk of contracting certain types of cancers, but regularly exercising and eating healthfully certainly can. Losing weight cannot prevent osteoporosis, boost your immune system, lead to healthier pregnancies and childbirth, help you keep your weight off for life, improve your physical performance or prevent the loss of muscle, but by exercising regularly and eating healthfully, you absolutely can.

So what does this mean? Losing weight is not the important part of getting healthy - The important things to consider are eating healthfully, exercising regularly and taking care of your health. Skinny Fat or Fat-Fat your number one goal should be to get fit!