Obesity, clinical overweight and sarcopenia
Two problems usually treated separately that very often live in the same person.
Sarcopenic obesity — excess fat alongside reduced muscle mass and strength — is more common than it is diagnosed, and it is invisible to a scale. Someone can lose ten kilos and worsen their metabolic prognosis if three or four of those kilos came from muscle.
So the goal here is never simply “lose weight”. The goal is to change the proportion, and that can only be steered if it is measured. Dynamometry adds the other half of the story: having muscle is not enough, it has to work.
- Skeletal muscle mass measured by limb and trunk, not estimated
- Hand grip strength as an indicator of neuromuscular health
- Protein intake calculated and distributed through the day
- Moderate calorie deficit, steered to preserve lean tissue
- Visceral fat watched as a risk marker beyond weight
This page is educational material from a registered dietitian, not a diagnostic tool. Diagnosis and medical treatment are your doctor’s remit; clinical nutrition accompanies that treatment, it does not replace it.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, in certain profiles and at a limited rate. It is more likely in people starting with excess fat and little training experience. In lean advanced athletes it is far harder. Detail in this article.
No. It is more frequent and more severe with age, but it appears in young adults with sedentary lifestyles, repeated restrictive diets, inflammatory disease or rapid weight loss. It is one of the reasons I see patients from age 18.
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