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.

  • Short Communication
  • Published:

Differences in body composition between metabolically healthy obese and metabolically abnormal obese adults

International Journal of Obesity volume 38, pages 1142–1145 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Potential differences in body composition between metabolically healthy obese (MHO) and metabolically abnormal obese (OA) adults were explored with 395 obese adults from the Pennington Center Longitudinal Study (18–68 years). Adults were classified as OA (⩾2 risk factors: blood pressure ⩾130/85 mmHg; triglycerides ⩾150 mg dl−1; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol: men <40, women <50 mg dl−1; fasting glucose ⩾100 mg dl−1; waist circumference: ⩾102 cm men, women ⩾88 cm) or MHO (<2 risk factors). Whole-body bone mineral density and content, percent body fat, fat mass, lean mass and trunk adipose tissue mass were measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Visceral (VAT), subcutaneous (SAT) and total abdominal adipose tissue (TAT) were measured with computed tomography. Gender-specific general linear regression models were used to determine differences in body composition between MHO and OA controlling for age, race, smoking status and menopause status. In men, MHO had lower fat mass (kg and %), trunk adipose tissue, VAT, SAT, TAT and lean mass compared with OA. MHO women had lower fat mass (kg), lean mass, trunk adipose tissue, VAT and TAT when compared with OA women. In conclusion, OA and MHO cardiometabolic profiles are characterized by differences in body composition consistent between genders.

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

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brochu M, Tchernof A, Dionne IJ, Sites CK, Eltabbakh GH, Sims EA et al. What are the physical characteristics associated with a normal metabolic profile despite a high level of obesity in postmenopausal women? J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001; 86: 1020–1025.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Karelis AD, Brochu M, Rabasa-Lhoret R . Can we identify metabolically healthy but obese individuals (MHO)? Diabetes Metab 2004; 30: 569–572.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Primeau V, Coderre L, Karelis AD, Brochu M, Lavoie ME, Messier V et al. Characterizing the profile of obese patients who are metabolically healthy. Int J Obes (Lond) 2011; 35: 971–981.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Meigs JB, Wilson PW, Fox CS, Vasan RS, Nathan DM, Sullivan LM et al. Body mass index, metabolic syndrome, and risk of type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006; 91: 2906–2912.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Durward CM, Hartman TJ, Nickols-Richardson SM . All-cause mortality risk of metabolically healthy obese individuals in NHANES III. J Obes 2012; 2012: 460321.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Jennings CL, Lambert EV, Collins M, Joffe Y, Levitt NS, Goedecke JH . Determinants of insulin-resistant phenotypes in normal-weight and obese Black African women. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2008; 16: 1602–1609.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Messier V, Karelis AD, Prud'homme D, Primeau V, Brochu M, Rabasa-Lhoret R . Identifying metabolically healthy but obese individuals in sedentary postmenopausal women. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2010; 18: 911–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Messier V, Karelis AD, Robillard ME, Bellefeuille P, Brochu M, Lavoie JM et al. Metabolically healthy but obese individuals: relationship with hepatic enzymes. Metabolism 2010; 59: 20–24.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Shin MJ, Hyun YJ, Kim OY, Kim JY, Jang Y, Lee JH . Weight loss effect on inflammation and LDL oxidation in metabolically healthy but obese (MHO) individuals: low inflammation and LDL oxidation in MHO women. Int J Obes (Lond) 2006; 30: 1529–1534.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. You T, Ryan AS, Nicklas BJ . The metabolic syndrome in obese postmenopausal women: relationship to body composition, visceral fat, and inflammation. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2004; 89: 5517–5522.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Stefan N, Kantartzis K, Machann J, Schick F, Thamer C, Rittig K et al. Identification and characterization of metabolically benign obesity in humans. Arch Intern Med 2008; 168: 1609–1616.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Succurro E, Marini MA, Frontoni S, Hribal ML, Andreozzi F, Lauro R et al. Insulin secretion in metabolically obese, but normal weight, and in metabolically healthy but obese individuals. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2008; 16: 1881–1886.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ortega FN, Lee DC, Katzmarzyk PT, Ruiz JR, Sui X, Church TS et al. The intriguing metabolically healthy but obese phentoype: cardiovascular prognosis and role of fitness. Eur Heart J 2013; 34: 389–397.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Demerath EW, Sun SS, Rogers N, Lee M, Reed D, Choh AC et al. Anatomical patterning of visceral adipose tissue: race, sex, and age variation. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2007; 15: 2984–2993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Wells JC . Sexual dimorphism of body composition. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007; 21: 415–430.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Kuk JL, Saunders TJ, Davidson LE, Ross R . Age-related changes in total and regional fat distribution. Ageing Res Rev 2009; 8: 339–348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Katzmarzyk PT, Bray GA, Greenway FL, Johnson WD, Newton RL Jr, Ravussin E et al. Racial differences in abdominal depot-specific adiposity in white and African American adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2010; 91: 7–15.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Brochu M, Mathieu ME, Karelis AD, Doucet E, Lavoie ME, Garrel D et al. Contribution of the lean body mass to insulin resistance in postmenopausal women with visceral obesity: a Monet study. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2008; 16: 1085–1093.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Karelis AD, Faraj M, Bastard JP, St-Pierre DH, Brochu M, Prud'homme D et al. The metabolically healthy but obese individual presents a favorable inflammation profile. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2005; 90: 4145–4150.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Marini MA, Succurro E, Frontoni S, Hribal ML, Andreozzi F, Lauro R et al. Metabolically healthy but obese women have an intermediate cardiovascular risk profile between healthy nonobese women and obese insulin-resistant women. Diabetes Care 2007; 30: 2145–2147.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. This project was partially supported by a Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NIH 2P30DK072476) Center grant from the National Institutes of Health. PTK is supported, in part, by the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority Endowed Chair in Nutrition. We specially thank Emily Mire and Connie Murla for data management, and to the many clinical scientists and staff of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center who have contributed data to the development of the Pennington Center Longitudinal Study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    S M Camhi

  2. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    P T Katzmarzyk

Authors
  1. S M Camhi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. P T Katzmarzyk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P T Katzmarzyk.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

These authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Camhi, S., Katzmarzyk, P. Differences in body composition between metabolically healthy obese and metabolically abnormal obese adults. Int J Obes 38, 1142–1145 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.208

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.208

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links