Skinny Fat

If I am diagnosing right, skinny fat is a low scale weight with high percent of body fat (Body Mass Index - BMI).  This can be discouraging for people who have lost weight and look slim in clothes, but still have pockets of fat in unwanted areas.  Also, for people who have been slim most of their life without diet or exercise and as they age, see layers of fat start to come on.

What are some of the causes?

• Skinny fat is a common side effect of starvation diets.  Fat is emergency storage, your body will burn muscle first if caloric intake is too low.
• Overdosing on cario may result in loss of muscle mass if not combined with strength training
• And of course, on a naturally slim person, lack of exercise in general with poor eating habits

What is the solution?  Lifting and eating clean.  Taking in less calories is not the answer, taking in the right calories is. You may gain muscle mass, which will translate in pounds on the scale, yet all the while appearing slimmer.  When I say pounds, in women, I am not talking 10 pound gains, unless you are competing and really making a concerted effort to do so.  The average person may gain 1-3 pounds or stay the same trading fat for muscle and go down a dress size.

Keep these principles in mind if you are trying to gain more muscle mass and less fat on a slim frame.

• Eating clean, this means whenever possible avoid processed foods, soda, sugar and fried foods.  Take in good fats like coconut oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, avocados and raw nuts.
• Increase your lifting weight regularly, this is called strength training.  Slinging the same weight week after week, even if it is heavy, or too light is not building strength.  Increasing the weight gives you a bench mark.
• Taking a week off periodically (try once a quarter) to recuperate from the load.