Some people develop insulin resistance, fatty liver disease, high triglycerides, and Type 2 diabetes at body weights that may not look high by standard BMI categories.
This is especially important in several Asian populations.
BMI is a rough measure of body size.
It does not directly measure:
That means two people with the same BMI can have very different metabolic risk.
Visceral fat is fat stored around internal organs.
It is more metabolically active than fat stored under the skin.
A person with more visceral fat may have higher risk for:
This can happen even when BMI is not very high.
This topic is especially important for people with ancestry from:
It also matters for Pacific Island populations, Middle Eastern populations, and other groups where abdominal obesity and metabolic disease can appear early.
The risk becomes stronger when genetic and body-composition patterns meet a modern diet high in:
The result may be a higher metabolic load at a lower body weight.
A “normal” BMI does not always mean low metabolic risk.
For many populations, waist size, triglycerides, HbA1c, fasting glucose, blood pressure, and fatty liver markers may tell a more useful story.
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