Dieting Without Exercise Can Create Serious Health Problems

People who maintain their weight through diet alone without exercising may develop serious internal fat deposits that put their health at risk, according to new studies. Internal fat that surrounds vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas could be as dangerous as the external fat bulges that create love handles, thunder thighs, beer bellies and bouncy bottoms.

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London.

Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat, reports Maria Cheng for the Associated Press. What they've found is that even people who appear to be thin, may be storing dangerous amounts of fat around critical organs. "Even people with normal body-mass index (BMI) scores can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside," writes Cheng. Fully 45% of the women scanned by Bell had normal BMI scores (20 to 25) but excessive levels of internal fat. For men, the number was nearly 60%.

"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

A diet rich in fatty, sugary foods and too little or no exercise leads to the build up of internal fat deposits. Doctors are still studying how internal fat affects health, but they believe it contributes to heart disease and diabetes. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina. Internal fat is easily burned off through exercise, so get out there and start walking!