Findings have shown that even high levels of muscle mass do not offset the negative effects of excessive obesity (adipose tissue) on a person’s cardiometabolic health.
Analysis of muscle and fat mass data from large sample populations has revealed limitations in accurately predicting cardiometabolic risk.
Researchers at Concordia University who were investigating body phenotypes (observable characteristics such as height, behavior, appearance, and other measurable characteristics) found that high levels of fat mass in individuals, regardless of muscle mass, found to be associated with poorer overall health.
Research results published in journals preventive medicine, based on data from a long-term study in the United States. The findings reveal that high levels of muscle mass do not counteract the detrimental effects of excessive obesity (adipose tissue) on cardiometabolic health in humans.
The researchers based their study on data from NHANES, a cross-sectional representative sample of the US population collected between 1999 and 2006. Data were collected using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), a diagnostic framework to analyze obesity and muscle mass. Based on which side of the ranked 50th percentile, the individual was classified into one of her four proposed phenotypes: low fat/high muscle, high fat/high muscle, low fat/high. Muscle, or low-fat/low-muscle.
The researchers looked at how the obese/muscle phenotype was related to lipid levels such as cholesterol and triglycerides, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure. Adjusted.
Sylvia Santosa, associate professor in the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University.Credit: Concordia University
“We wanted to see if this proposed classification was better than the traditional body mass index (BMI) in predicting all these different cardiometabolic outcomes,” says Health, Kinesiology, and Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physiology and author of the paper.
Surprisingly, we found that BMI, while far from perfect, may be a better predictor of cardiometabolic risk such as diabetes and hypertension.
Associate Professor Lisa Kakinami, Concordia alumnus and current Rhodes Scholar Sabine Plummer, BSc 22, Ph.D. University of British Columbia students Jessica Murphy and Tamara Cohen co-authored this paper .
Benefits of BMI
Nevertheless, the data revealed some surprising findings. Compared to the low-fat/high-muscle group, which was the healthiest of the four groups, researchers noted the following results:
The two more obese groups were less likely to be physically active and more likely to have abnormal lipids and unhealthy diets.
- The high-fat/low-muscle group had higher total cholesterol levels, lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (“good” cholesterol), and lower nutritional intake. sex was also 56-66% lower.
- The high fat/high muscle group had unfavorable values on all cardiometabolic and obesity measures. Nutrient intake was also reduced. This group was also 49% to 67% less likely to meet physical activity recommendations, about 80% more likely to have high blood pressure, and 23% to 35% more likely to exceed recommended saturated fat intake.
- Overall, the high-fat/high-muscle phenotype was least likely to meet physical activity and nutrition recommendations and had the highest risk of poor cardiometabolic health.
- The low-fat/low-muscle group had significantly lower BMI and waist circumference. This group had the lowest grip strength among the four phenotypes.
“If you’re looking at cardiometabolic risk at the population level, BMI can give you a cheap and quick idea of what’s going on,” Santosa says.
See also: “Body composition phenotypes and their association with cardiometabolic risk and health behaviors in a representative common US sample” Lisa Kakinami, Sabine Plummer, Tamara R. Cohen, Sylvia Santosa, Jessica Murphy, 30 September 2022, preventive medicine.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107282
