29 Percent Of Obese Adults, 16 Percent Of Severely Obese, Are Metabolically Healthy: 30 Percent Of Normal-Weight Americans Are Metabolically Unhealthy

From National Institutes of Health, US National Library of Medicine, "'Obese' May Not Always Equal Unhealthy: Study: Authors warn against using body size as sole measure of good health, but other experts cite risks of too much weight:"

Using a government health survey, researchers found that nearly half of overweight U.S. adults were "metabolically healthy."

That meant they had no more than one risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease -- including high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol or triglyceride levels, elevated blood sugar, or high concentrations of C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation in the blood vessels).

Among obese adults, 29 percent were deemed healthy -- as were 16 percent of those who were severely obese based on body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height).

On the other hand, more than 30 percent of normal-weight Americans were metabolically unhealthy.