Slim people store 'Fat' inside - Study

People who go for balanced diet instead of exercise to maintain their weight are at higher risk of having internal fat surrounding vital organs, even if they are otherwise slim, a new study by British researchers has warned.

Researchers from the Imperial College, in their findings, warned that being thin does not automatically mean you are not fat, and said it is possible to be skinny but fat at the same time. They believe that the internal fat deposited around the vital body organs like the heart, liver or pancreas, which cannot be seen from the naked eye, could be as harmful to our health as the more obvious external fat that is widely seen.

According to Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, the whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined based on what he has dubbed, "TOFIs, people who are (Thin Outside, Fat Inside."

To reach their findings, Dr. Bell and colleagues scanned nearly 800 people using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines since 1994.

After observing the data from MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) "fat maps" done on study subjects, researchers’ team discovered a good deal about where people store fat on their bodies. Bell’s team found that people who stay thin via a diet rather than the exercise are more likely to have large deposits of internal fat, while people who maintain their weight via exercise have less internal body fat around the organs.

"If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."

Doctors worry that TOFIs lack the obvious external signal that they’re not healthy, and consequently are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems.

People with normal Body Mass Index scores (BMI), a standard obesity measure that divides the weight by the square of the height, can have large amounts of fat deposits inside, the British researchers found.

Bell and his colleagues found that nearly 45 percent of scanned women with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive amount of internal fat, while 60 percent of men in the normal range had the same problem.

The experts emphasize that even maintaining a normal BMI does not insure that you will be healthy, a fact that was proven in the study.

Researchers also suggested that internal fat can be burned off easily via exercise or even by improving the diet.

"The important message is people shouldn't be happy just because they look thin; it's not about looking fit or thin, it's about being healthy. When you exercise, you tend to burn internal fat. Lifestyle changes have to include physical activity. It is just not enough to diet," Bell said.