The use of MRIs is showing that some people, although looking "slim", (that is no apparent excess fat), are in fact "fat" on the inside. Certain body types, especially with a poor restricted diet and limited excercise, store unhealthy amounts on fat internally. Litres of fat can be around the heart, kidneys, pancreas and other places internally, yet further dieting alone will not really get rid of this and many people are walking around thinking they are healhty when they are not (Professor Bell MRCC Hammersmith). Only a MRI scan will really show this but some other warning signs are if you have ever yo-yo'ed badly with diets and you dont have much of a pronounced waist, even though it it not fat in traditional terms. Most healthy females have about 1 litre of fat but some women who looked really healthy and had BMI of 19, were found to have almost 3 litres of internal fat and stressing the internals of the body.

If you tend to be apple shaped, are between 20 and 30, have crash yo-yo dieted, have a poor diet and keep your weight down with this poor diet alone, stress, smoke, drink, dont take much excercise and have a large (but not fleshy waist), then you might have this problem. As I have said before, a lot of what ones body is all about, lies in ones genetics. I happen to be lucky in that I am naturally slim with a small waist and I do actually have trouble putting in weight and (dont want to kill me for saying that). For others though, if they are not naturally like this, then yo-yo dieting, poor diet, lack of excercise, smoking, can all lead to a lack of external bulges, but may be storing up problems inside.

As an aside, waist sizes have exploded in the last 50 years going up a whole 6 inches compared with about 2 for bust and hips. As a model, I and others seem to be increasinglly out on a limb having a 23/4 inch waist as people in the street have more like 27+ with 30 being an average over the whole female group?

I attach the article here which is very interesting although poorly written in some areas. If it is unreadable, mail me and I will try and mail the original to you.

Ali
xxx

That's really interesting but I'm starting to think uh-oh maybe I should do some exersise from time to time!! :P

I don't doubt the concept is legitimate, but is there some real-world stats to go with this? How many people it effects, how much higher their risk of heart disease etc is?

Articles like this smack of paranoia, like current affairs programs 'exposing' the latest quiet killer for everyone to flip hypochondriacal about. It's also a mental re-inforcement that being skinny is no better/worse for you than carrying excess weight, furthering the cause of PC fatness.

ahhhh i am probably disgustingly FAT on the inside... what do i do? :s

I think it's plausible. I can eat junk all day long, I'm sure my insides are falling apart

James

It is good to question articles like this as some have no facts behind them and many are the popular press trying to spin a story. As a slim model I am really fed up with all of the crass press on the whole skinny debate as my piece on Size zero in my Myspace blog details.

In this case, the basic underlying data on internal body fat is sound and comes from highly reputable studies but the quantatative effect excess internal fat has on the body is indeed still being researched, (see below).

I too resent press articles that hyperbolise and try and push a line with spin. The facts found in the study though that yo-yo dieting, holding ones weight low only through bad eating, smoking, stress and having an apple body genetic make up, does seem to have this physical affect on some people of storing larger amounts of internal fat, are maybe food(!) for thought.

The basic commom sense ideas to excercise properly, eat healthily, cut down on smoking, lead a balanced work-life balance and to not force one's body where it was not built to be, is good advice:)


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The study which was funded by the Medical Research Council involved 800 people who were scanned using MRI devices and Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, says being thin does not automatically mean a person is not fat.

Dr. Bell's "fat maps" taken since 1994 which were created from the scans, show where excess fat was stored and it was found that people who were thin were not necessarily trim; as many as 60 percent of men and 45 percent of the women with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) screened who were externally thin had dangerous deposits of internal fat.

The researchers believe that the "concept of being fat needs to be redefined" as people who are thin outside, but fat inside are hovering on the verge of being obese.

Experts say that it is at present unclear what the exact dangers of internal fat are but many believe that it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

exactly~!

The reality is being slim doesn't necessarily mean you are healthy.
I think "The media" is doing a bad job peddling that you don't need to exercise to lose weight. While i don't disagree with this, it presents "overweight" people with another "easy way out"

Genetics aside, there are deeper psychological issues involved. Why do people fail to see this?

when i was a chubby kid, i felt depressed and hated myself. This actually became an involuntary addictive state of mind, or in other words "a downward spiral"

emotions become addictive, whether good or bad. Hence the sub-conscious desire to create the events that caused them (cause and effect)
eg.. "I hate my-self, i am ugly" triggers emotion = chemical release

The good news??

it works both ways, you can become addicted to feeling good about yourself 2 :P

I did it by taking up music and self-defense. The combination of praise and self-confidence was enough to pull me from a lifetime of misery and possible slowly gorging myself to death

now i don't worry about my weight, and hence i don't have to. I enjoy exercising just as much as kababs 3am on sat, I live a life of excess hahahaha. :P
But that applies to everything in it!

Time for a campaign targeting TOFIs - if I saw a QUIT-esque ad with what that vanilla slice, chocolate bar and coke was doing to my stomach, I'd be horrified. There's too much focus on weight per se without accounting for context. But for now I'm happily TOFI!

Better TOFI then FOFI

Let's just say I'm thin on the outside and obese on the inside. I love eating junk food. I can't help myself.