People of "normal" weight who sport a wide waist are more at risk of heart problems than obese people, said researchers on Friday, urging a rethink of healthy weight guidelines. How fat is distributed on a person's frame determined disease risk as much as how much fat they had overall, according to an investigation of nearly 1,700 people aged 45 and over.
Even people who are not classified overweight on the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale, should be concerned if they had an "apple" shape with a waist wider than their hips, said research leader Jose Medina-Inojosa of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Such excess fat around the middle is called "central obesity".
"Current guidelines do not recommend measuring central obesity in those with normal weight as they claim their is no risk exposure," Medina-Inojosa told AFP. "We found greater risk... for those with normal weight and central obesity, on the contrary. This has the potential to change guidelines."
Study participants, 1,692 residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, had their weight, height, and waist and hip circumference measured between 1997 and 2000. They were monitored until 2016 for cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke.
Participants with a normal BMI but central obesity had a two-fold higher long-term risk of disease than pear-shaped participants - even technically obese ones, the research found.