Please stop saying ‘skinnyfat’
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional and the following is my opinion only. References and further reading can be found at the end of this post.
Skinnyfat as 'cringe'
As if we didn't have enough words to bodyshame ourselves and others, a few years ago I came across the term ‘skinnyfat' on social media. I distinctly remember reading the definition and poking and prodding at my torso, wondering if I fit the description. As I sat there and frantically googled, the ‘skinnyfat' character began to form in my mind.
The skinnyfat person was characterised as a bit sad, pathetic and though they maybe went to the gym, they probably didn't try hard enough. Almost as if it was embarrassing. As if it was cringe to be anything but completely shredded with washboard abs. Fitness industry standards and social media tell us that men should be big and muscly and women should be small and ‘toned'. Content creators who recounted being skinnyfat before their ‘transformations' did so with derision for their past selves. So I sat there, absorbing all of it like many of us do, measuring myself against a standard I hadn't even heard of 10 minutes earlier.
This is another example of how the fitness industry and social media continue to fuel our self-hatred and shame to further their own agendas. But where does this term actually come from, and is there anything behind it?
Where did skinnyfat come from?
Though most of us have heard or seen the term used colloquially on social media, skinnyfat was derived from, and is sometimes used interchangeably with, the clinical term normal weight obesity — when a person with a ‘normal' BMI has a high body fat percentage, which may carry some of the same health risks as obesity. It's worth noting that normal weight obesity is a legitimate clinical concept. Research does link it to real cardiometabolic risks, including increased inflammation and metabolic syndrome. The problem isn't the science — the problem is how it was warped and used to scaremonger. In its clinical context, normal weight obesity is assessed using body fat percentage — an actual physiological measure. As the term migrated to social media, that distinction was lost entirely, and skinnyfat became a descriptor for how someone looks rather than anything measurable about their health. But let's break this down.
Firstly, it has been shown time and time again that BMI is an unreliable predictor of health or fitness. We were even taught to disregard it completely in the nutrition course I studied. So if BMI is unreliable — and fitness professionals are being explicitly told not to use it to classify clients' health — what exactly is a ‘normal' BMI? The term loses its foundation before we've even finished reading the definition.
Let's read between the lines: normal weight obesity highlights that straight-size people can have health risks that aren't visible from the outside. In other words — you can't tell how fit or healthy someone is by what they look like. This is actually a positive and well-evidenced message, one that body-positive campaigners and some fitness professionals have been making for years. Are we finally catching up and admitting that weight isn't a reliable predictor of health?
Not quite. Instead of expanding who was considered healthy, the goalposts shifted further and meeting the existing standard was no longer enough. Skinnyfat ensured that even ‘normal weight' people were now under scrutiny, making the definition of what is acceptable ever narrower.
And yet, nobody is asking the people who do meet these narrow aesthetic standards whether they're eating enough, or giving unsolicited health advice. Nobody's checking their cardiovascular health, or asking what diseases they might be at risk of. Because despite the evidence, we still conflate how a body looks with how healthy it is — and the fitness industry depends on us continuing to do exactly that.
What I know now
Years later, I know that fit isn't an aesthetic, and you can't tell if someone's fit just by looking at them — something backed up by numerous studies. I know that carrying fat on my hips doesn't mean I can't lift heavy. I know that having cellulite doesn't mean I can't run for miles without stopping. I know that not having visible abs doesn't mean I can't pull myself up on a bar. And I also know that being able to do these things doesn’t determine my worth, but it does motivate me to keep working hard and inspires me far more than ‘fitspo’ influencers on IG.
So why are personal trainers still using this term? Instead of shaming normal bodies, why not inspire people to use their one and only body to do incredible things — run, jump, lift, swim? Why not make exercise fun and accessible, rather than something we have to earn or suffer through? Why not celebrate what our bodies can do, rather than training purely for aesthetics — which research suggests is associated with lower long-term exercise adherence, and may even negatively affect self-esteem and body image?
The skinnyfat label doesn't make anyone healthier. It just makes more people feel like they're not enough — which, for an industry selling solutions to inadequacy, is exactly the point.
References
Flegal, K.M. et al. (2010). Association of All-Cause Mortality With Overweight and Obesity Using Standard Body Mass Index Categories.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2930234/
Orlando, F.A. et al. (2025). Body Mass Index vs Body Fat Percentage as a Predictor of Mortality in Adults Aged 20–49 Years.https://ufhealth.org/news/2025/uf-health-study-shows-bmis-weakness-as-a-predictor-of-future-health
Romero-Corral, A. et al. (2010). Normal Weight Obesity: A Risk Factor for Cardiometabolic Dysregulation and Cardiovascular Mortality.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2838679/
Liu-Galvin, R. et al. (2025). More Evidence of the Health Risks of Normal Weight Obesity: The Association with Systemic Inflammation.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12670252/
Teixeira, P.J. et al. (2012). Exercise, Physical Activity, and Self-Determination Theory: A Systematic Review.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1479-5868-9-78
National Exercise Trainers Association (2018). Increasing Motivation for Exercise Adherence.https://www.netafit.org/2018/04/increasing-motivation-for-exercise-adherence/