Genuine question: What is the difference between overfat and overweight? Isn’t the extra weight in an overweight person comprised of fat?

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arximboldi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A muscular person can be "overweight" by BMI standards but not overfat at all. This is the case for many types of athletes, specially in strength disciplines but not only. It is the case in the fitness world that people ignore BMI and are intesterested in body-fat-percentage instead. This is hard to measure accurately so not so useful metric for the general population.

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wjholden 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It's also possible to be overfat without being overweight! These "skinny fat" people often look normal enough but they carry very little muscle. It is a concerning condition because a doctor might not recommend a normal-weight person to hit the weights.

I like to think of this as four quadrants around two axes. Low fat/low muscle is simply skinny. High fat/high muscle is the "big guy/gal" look that I associate with laborers. Low fat/high muscle is an athletic look; unhealthy in extremes (bodybuilding) but generally desirable. High fat/low muscle is skinny fat, which I associate with sedentary knowledge workers.

	▲	wbl 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Different athletes look different. A runner vs a Olympic powerlifter vs a quarterback.

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zdragnar 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've been considered borderline or obese by the standard BMI index for 20 years at least, but for a lot of that had very little to no visible extra weight. A lot of that was just plain having more muscle than the average the standards are built around, but I also suspect BMI gets to be really inaccurate for tall people. I would look anorexic if I had to drop enough weight to be considered not overweight.

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piva00 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not necessarily, a bodybuilder or very athletic person might be overweight in the sense of above average for their height but not overfat.

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sn9 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Overfat" just refers to having too much fat.

"Overweight" can mean the same thing for weight, but it also refers to those with a BMI specifically between 25 and 30, and those with BMIs greater than 30 are classified as "obese".

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hansvm 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The dominant discrepancies are "expected" fat (boobs, etc), and "unexpected" muscle (cyclists, body builders, hard labour careers, etc). I'm currently around 10-15lb overfat and 40-50lb overweight [0]. Only the former statistic matters.

[0] And that, at least somewhat, tracks visual perceptions. Nobody looks at me with a shirt on and believes I need to lose weight, because 10-15lb isn't _that_ much extra on a tall frame. If I were 40-50lb overfat then that would be painfully obvious regardless.

	▲	sanderjd an hour ago \| parent [-]
		What is the line for "overfat" in this framework?