The term ‘overfat’ refers to the presence of excess body fat that can impair health, even for normal weight individuals. In the U.S., New Zealand, Greece, and Iceland, prevalence of the overfat condition is at an alarmingly high rate of 90% in adult males and up to 50% in children, according to new research. Up to 80% of women fall into this category, too.
Overfat prevalence categories in 30 of the most developed countries. Image credit: Maffetone et al.
Earlier this year, Dr. Philip Maffetone, CEO of MAFF Fitness Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues from the Auckland University of Technology and MAFF Fitness estimated that between 62 and 76% of the world’s population may be overfat.
“It was recently estimated that between 62 and 76% of the world’s population have reached body fat levels that can impair health,” they said.
“This condition, which can now be labeled a pandemic, was described by the catch-all term overfat.”
Now the same team has focused their efforts on data from 30 of the world’s most developed countries, with even more alarming findings.
In addition, a recent rise in the incidence of abdominal adiposity, the unhealthiest form of excess body fat, has been observed in both adults and children, indicating a direct link to insulin-resistance.
The relationship between the overfat condition and poor health is a spectrum or progression in which the vicious cycle of excess body fat, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation lie at one end, causing abnormal blood fats and glucose, and elevated blood pressure, which then produces a variety of common diseases at the other end.
Being overfat is linked to hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis and gout, pulmonary diseases, sleep apnea and others.
General schematic of relationships between diet, overfat, some risk factors, and chronic illness. Image credit: Maffetone et al.
“The estimate of overfat in the world’s 30 top developed nations is substantially higher than the prevalence of overweight and obese adults and children worldwide and stresses the seriousness of the overfat pandemia,” the authors said.
“Regardless of Body Mass Index (BMI) values, overfat individuals have excess body fat, a high degree of cardiometabolic dysregulation that can promote disease risk factors and chronic disease, increased morbidity and mortality, reduced quality of life, and pose a rising economic burden.”
“As an unfulfilled public health action, it is crucial to clinically identify individuals who are overfat in order to implement successful treatment and prevention strategies.”
“Traditional means of assessment, such as stepping on a scale or calculating BMI, are ineffective at determining whether someone is overfat,” they explained.
“Instead, we recommend taking a measure of the waistline (at the level of the belly button) and comparing it to height.”
“The waist measure should be less than half a person’s.”
The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.
_____
Philip B. Maffetone et al. Overfat Adults and Children in Developed Countries: The Public Health Importance of Identifying Excess Body Fat. Front. Public Health, published online July 24, 2017; doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2017.00190
