The skinny fat syndrome
How to stop being skinny fat
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a family member at the gym whom I hadn't seen in a while. I wasn’t surprised to see him there, knowing he had been working hard to improve his health and fitness for the past few years. I understood in the past that he had trained with several personal trainers. However, that day he came alone; he seemed to be searching for new inspiration despite all the professional guidance he had received over the years and his newfound passion for dietary supplements. I remember he asked for my help with customs clearance for dietary supplements he bought from outside the country last year and, on occasion, for training tips. This little information suggests a keen enthusiasm that sadly didn’t translate into his stature.
He appeared thin and bloated at the same time—and to be blunt, his physique looked worse than when he first began his fitness journey. How does one who acts enthusiastically about an infallible process, the objective of which is to produce some positive outcomes, at least visually, end up regressing instead of making progress? Perhaps we are correct to say that stagnation is impossible for humans. We constantly have a knife at our throats. The knife represents active regression that severs the momentum we have built in the past the longer we remain without progressing. Progression is not linear, but it is important that we draw a distinction between slow progression and zero progression. When we cease to make progress, we automatically start to regress. Measuring success by referring to the beginning stage as a baseline is worthless after the first time; refusal to make (even small) progress means taking two steps backward which leads to feelings of defeat. Stagnation doesn’t exist in this sense, and frankly, it extends to all facets of life.
"Skinny fat" is not a body type but rather a sign of metabolic distress and an effect of an unhealthy ratio of lean mass to adipose tissue, also known as the body fat percentage. People who are straight-up fat or thin can (and should) primarily focus on diet to modify their bodies, whereas skinny fat people would do well to focus the majority of their efforts on training diligently. While solid control over food intake and the hormonal environment will certainly be helpful, these two factors truly become relevant when muscle building (i.e., resistance training) gets introduced into the mix.
I often see people use the term skinny fat for things I don’t necessarily agree with. For me, someone who is "skinny fat" has an abnormal discrepancy between the fat distribution around the limbs and around the organs. The way I just described it may sound a bit obscure, but it is actually easy to visualize. Picture someone with a beer belly, a spare tire, or a middle-age spread (also known as abdominal obesity or abdominal fat, which refers to the accumulation of excess fat in the abdominal region) with contrasting thin arms and legs. People who are labeled as skinny fat often have too much visceral fat and not enough subcutaneous or intramuscular fat, resulting in an imbalance in their overall appearance. On the other hand, someone who is "chubby" with an appearance of fairly distributed fat all around the body is not skinny fat. The distinction is important because the approach to these problems is going to differ. You need to bear in mind the juxtaposition of thin limbs and big bellies, in order to identify whether you are only suffering from a bit of excess fat retention around the love handles or you are in fact skinny fat. If you plan to bulk with the hope of balancing out the overall appearance by increasing arm size, you might just shoot yourself in the foot. Similarly, I've seen people try to cut for months on end with no success and end up jeopardizing their morale.
A protocol that is going to encourage the subsequent reduction of fat located in the abdomen by utilizing it as fuel to build muscle from other parts of the body is the approach that not only preserves sanity but is anti-extreme and logical. This is achieved over time through body recomposition via strength training. I personally have found that when I gain weight from training, (which is not just in measurements of pure muscles), the body starts prioritizing fat storage in the areas that are frequently stressed by resistance training. This is likely because the combination of a structured training regimen and balanced nutrition promotes the creation of subcutaneous and intramuscular fat around the muscles. Fat helps to insulate and protect the muscle and plays a role in the absorption and transport of certain vitamins and minerals into the muscle. The bigger the muscle gets, the more "protection" it needs.
Sumo wrestlers tend to have a low amount of visceral fat, which is the type of fat that is found around the organs in the abdominal cavity. They also have a low overall body fat percentage, with mostly subcutaneous fat and almost no visceral fat. A study was done once of 36 professional and 39 amateur sumo wrestlers, with an average weight of 117 kg, a BMI of 36.5, and a body fat percentage of 26.2, which is defined as clinically obese but is much healthier than a fat non-athlete who is morbidly obese. It can be further justified by a study published in 2007 in the "International Journal of Sports Medicine" that compared the fat-free mass of athletes and non-athletes and found that athletes, including sumo wrestlers, had significantly more fat-free mass than non-athletes. Past research has also shown that bodybuilders have approximately 45 lbs more fat-free mass than non-athletes, while sumo wrestlers have more than 65 lbs more fat-free mass than untrained people of the same height.
"Lift and get stronger" sounds fairly simple but works across the board. It will be a test of patience because, unlike someone who is skinny and finally understands that he needs to eat, the results may not be as evident in a short amount of time. Given the right protocols, such individuals will gain a lot of fat and muscle at the same time. However, the fat will be evenly distributed across the body as they progress with rigorous training, which is to say, they will look good. The upper hand from not being burdened with spare tires at the start is going to result in a transformation that is almost instantaneous visually. On the other hand, being skinny fat means the transformation will be much slower. In a sense, you are morphing rather than transforming, which requires more patience and perseverance on your part.
Never rush it. The worst thing you can do is look in the mirror and think, "Oh, I'm not seeing any significant loss around my belly, so I'll cut." or "Oh, I'm not gaining enough arm size, so I'll bulk". Adopting this way of thinking can trap you in a vicious cycle of being skinny fat. This can be a difficult cycle to break, as it involves both physical and mental aspects. Your body is currently in a state where it is prioritizing the storage of visceral fat, by cutting, you are essentially fortifying the appearance of being skinny fat by burning subcutaneous fat around other parts of the body while retaining visceral fat around the organs. By bulking, especially with no prior training, the same logic can be applied. The body will store fat around the abdominal areas as you keep at a surplus.
Ultimately, it boils down to hormonal profiles and the environment in which the body exists. Being skinny fat is an expression of genetics to some extent, but it is often the result of toxic environments; the body is subjected to an environment that is not conducive to looking muscular (i.e., hypertrophy), which can be attributed to a bad diet, habits or lifestyle, and a lack of training. So you've fixed the lack of training, but what about the diet? Caloric maintenance is the best way to approach this as skinny fat. Eating at caloric maintenance means consuming the number of calories that your body needs to maintain its current weight. At maintenance, strength and muscle gain are possible even for intermediate and advanced athletes.
The fitness community's culture of bulking and cutting can be a double-edged sword, and neither will likely work for novices with this type of problem. Fad diets result in yo-yo dieting, which is bad enough, as it involves constantly fluctuating between weight loss and regain. Therefore, it negates the purpose of training and dieting as skinny fat.
Many young men may not realize that toxic environments can have a significant impact on a person's physical appearance and overall health. Toxic environments can disrupt the body's hormonal profile, which can have a range of negative effects. The environment in which we exist is not neutral; it is actively toxic in the sense that we are constantly at risk for health consequences through our diet, habits, and lifestyle. Everything we do in some ways is detrimental to our being, but with training, we are starting to correct that.
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I am not a big fan of cardio-only workouts, but if you can manage to burn extra calories (by focusing on cardio) that match your appetite so you can eat a bit above maintenance, it may help you cope with the fact that you will not be at an extra surplus for a long time. For some people, this can lead to an uncontrollable appetite, which can be a disaster, but for the most part, you will learn that by being consistent over time, the skinny fat syndrome is reversible.