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Just Because You’re Skinny Doesn’t Mean You’re Not Fat
By Christina | July 15, 2009
In a recent mock poll, women were given the choice of whether they would rather be skinny and shave five years off of their life expectancy or be overweight. Shockingly, women would rather be skinny even if that meant an earlier death. Being skinny is like the perfect little black dress. It’s forever sought after and never goes out of style.
Skinny people may be the envy of us all, but the truth is being skinny may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. It turns out that even skinny people can be fat. Who knew? If you have always secretly hated your skinny friends because they could eat all the unhealthy food in the world and never exercise while still fitting into their size 00 clothes, this revelation should make you feel slightly better about yourself.
The bottom line is that being skinny does not equal being healthy. In fact, studies have shown that overweight people who are fit are actually healthier and can live longer than their skinny counterparts who eat poorly and never exercise. Living a long, healthy life has more to do with how skinny you are on the inside, not the outside.
Whether you are skinny or fat is not the real question. The relevant question in terms of your overall health and well-being is how much lean muscle mass you have in relation to the percentage of fat in your body. Skinny people who never exercise and gorge on junk food have no muscular definition and a lot of fat. It just so happens that the fat is inside their bodies and not visible on the outside. Doctors warn that this kind of internal fat is just as or even more dangerous than the fat we can see.
The reality is being skinny and unfit is actually just as unhealthy as being fat and unfit. The risks of diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease are almost identical for both groups.
If you are someone who is obsessed with the scale and focused solely on getting skinny, you are missing the big picture of long term health and longevity. Eating well and exercising are critical no matter what number registers on the scale. It might be cute for magazine polls to say you would rather be skinny and die younger than be overweight. But, in real life if you are “skinny fat” you are no better off in the long run than if you were simply fat. And besides, a toned backside will look so much better in those skinny jeans of yours!
Topics: Nutrition |
