Up to 76 percent of the global population of 7.2 billion is “overfat” – a term that a new study published in Frontier Public Health says refers to “a condition of having sufficient excess body fat to impair health.” It includes the 39-49 percent of the global population that qualify as obese, as well as those falling into current standards for normal fat levels.
“The overfat pandemic has not spared those who exercise or even compete in sports,” says the lead author of the study, Dr. Philip Maffetone, CEO of MAFF Fitness Pty Ltd, who teamed with Ivan Rivera-Dominguez, research assistant at MAFF and Paul B. Laursen, adjunct professor at the Auckland University of Technology.
“The overfat category includes normal-weight people with increased risk factors for chronic disease, such as high abdominal fat, and those with characteristics of a condition called normal-weight metabolic obesity,” explains Maffetone. He adds that the Body Mass Index (BMI), which divides a person’s weight by their height and is the prevailing assessment tool for assessing appropriate weight, is inadequate.
The study argues that “weight” and “fat” are too often conflated in scientific literature. For example, the researchers say, a higher weight that isn’t associated with lower muscle mass, may not be as harmful as a higher weight that comes along with less muscle and more fat. The position of the fat on an individual’s body, especially if it is centered around the abdomen, plays into health impacts too, according to the researchers.