Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

OBESITY

Body composition — more to fat than first meets the eye

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 14, pages 569–570 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Body composition and fitness have important roles in predicting prognosis in both primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, in patients with established cardiovascular diseases, body composition and fitness impact partly explain the ‘obesity paradox’.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Jenkins, D. A. et al. Adiposity-mortality relationships in type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer subgroups in the UK Biobank, and their modification by smoking. Diabetes Care https://doi.org/10.2337/dc17-2508 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lee, D. H. et al. Predicted lean body mass, fat mass, and all cause and cause specific mortality in men: prospective US cohort study. BMJ 362, k2575 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lavie, C. J. et al. Obesity and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and prognosis: the obesity paradox updated. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis. 58, 537–547 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lavie, C. J. et al. Update on obesity and obesity paradox in heart failure. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis. 58, 393–400 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Lavie, C. J., De Schutter, A., Patel, D., Artham, S. M. & Milani, R. V. Body composition and coronary heart disease mortality: an obesity or a lean paradox? Mayo Clin. Proc. 86, 857–864 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lavie, C. J. et al. Body composition and survival in stable coronary heart disease: impact of lean mass index and body fat in the “obesity paradox.” J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 60, 1374–1380 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. McAuley, P. A. et al. The obesity paradox, cardiorespiratory fitness, and coronary heart disease. Mayo Clin. Proc. 87, 443–451 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ortega, F. B., Sui, X., Lavie, C. J. & Blair, S. N. Body mass index, the most widely used but also widely criticized index: would a criterion standard measure of total body fat be a better predictor of cardiovascular disease mortality? Mayo Clin. Proc. 91, 443–455 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Oktay, A. A. et al. The interaction of cardiorespiratory fitness with obesity and the obesity paradox in cardiovascular disease. Prog. Cardiovasc. Dis. 60, 30–44 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

F.B.O.’s research activity is currently being supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER (DEP2016-79512-R), and receives additional funding from the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 667302.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Carl J. Lavie

  2. PROmoting FITness and Health through Physical Activity (PROFITH) research group, Department of Physical Education and Sports Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Francisco B. Ortega

Authors
  1. Carl J. Lavie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Francisco B. Ortega
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carl J. Lavie.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lavie, C.J., Ortega, F.B. Body composition — more to fat than first meets the eye. Nat Rev Endocrinol 14, 569–570 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-018-0088-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-018-0088-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing