Metabolically obese normal weight or, as some prefer, normal-weight obesity sounds like an oxymoron. But according to an article in JAMA, 23.5% of normal-weight US adults ages 20 years or older were metabolically abnormal.
And such individuals account for an even a bigger percentage of the population in Asian countries. In India, for example, 40% of people considered to be normal weight by virtue of their body mass index (BMI) have metabolic dysfunction, such as high glucose and high triglycerides, said Faidon Magkos, PhD, a self-described metabolist who holds a joint appointment at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences and the Yong Loo Lin School.