Skinny Fat Science Supports the Growing Youth Movement for Healthy Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle

The current global health of humanity continues to suffer and decline, with the worsening obesity epidemic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), skinny fat crisis (6, 7, 8), mental health crisis (9, 10, 11), and increasing cancer rates (12, 13, 14, 15) among young people, no less. The growing youth movement (16, 17, 18) among Millennials (Generation Y) and Generation Z focuses on sustainable, healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices that support human health, as well as a healthy environment and planet. Our skinny fat science directly supports and complements this movement symbiotically to help galvanize real change for a sustainable future.

True health starts with understanding your unique genetic body, particularly composition and metabolism. Contrary to popular belief, every human being is not born in the same general body with the same composition and shape relative to height and gender. There is zero science to support this common gross assumption.

In fact, thanks to genetics, every human body has its own unique shape and composition in terms of muscle tissue, regular white/yellow fat tissue, brown fat tissue, beige fat tissue, and skinny fat tissue (thin fat, cellulite)(19, 20, 21, 22), no less. All of which directly affects your metabolism (23) along with diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices.

Skinny Fat Science Supports the Growing Youth Movement for Healthy Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle

The more genetic muscle that you naturally have, the stronger your metabolism. If you are experiencing below-average genetic muscle and skinny fat, the more severe the degree, the weaker your metabolism and the more severely it affects your body shape, no less. The weaker your metabolism, the more prone you are to being overweight or obese. And, the more regular white/yellow fat (common adipose tissue/body fat) that you are experiencing, the more it affects your body shape and can make any existing skinny fat worse.

By understanding if you are experiencing below-average genetic muscle and any skinny fat, and what it means, you can keep body image and health expectations realistic, attainable, and sustainable. Mental health issues like body dysmorphia, when not understood, lead to more serious problems like depression, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, etc.), damaging the physical body, and even suicide. Poor diet choices become common and “normal”, along with poor exercise (cardio and resistance) and lifestyle (sleep, stress, and environment) choices. And health suffers.

Not to mention the environment and planet suffer. Your daily diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices intimately influence the world you live in, including the environment and climate change. It is estimated that roughly 90% (24, 25, 26, 27, 28) of cancer is caused by poor diet, exercise, and/or lifestyle — this means that only approximately 10% is genetic.

What Is A Healthy Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle?

From the time I was young, up until recently, figuring out what a healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle are has proven to be very difficult. The science was scattered about, here and there, or did not exist at all, and no one could really agree on much of anything. The biased, corrupt, and inadequate original food pyramid came crashing down in 2005, leading to even more confusion with MyPyramid (29, 30, 31). In 2011, it was replaced by MyPlate, which is really no better. It also faces legitimate criticism because it no less than:

1 – lacks specific guidance on healthier food choices within food groups — the underlying framework still pushes the ‘calorie is a calorie’ mentality by de-emphasizing the crucial role of food quality over mere quantity

2 – doesn’t account for healthy fats

3 – presents dairy as a necessary component of every meal, especially low-fat dairy products

4 – ignores the importance of recognizing individual bodily hunger and fullness cues by suggesting a “clean the plate” mentality relative to obscure portions

Not to mention widespread, inconsistent, and frustrating exercise and lifestyle recommendations. Cardio? No Cardio? What kind is best? Is walking exercise? 10k steps? 5k steps? Moderate intensity? Vigorous intensity? How is intensity defined? Resistance weightlifting only?  How long? What intensity? More weight? Less weight? How about yoga, Pilates, isometrics, or calisthenics? How much sleep? Stress? Environment? Etc.

What about unique genetic body composition, at least?

How is metabolism affected by all of that?

Although more scientific research is needed, which we are working on with no less than our MRI Study (32), we have wrangled the latest science and developed the accurate Scientific Health Quizzes — along with our scientific articles database — with the intention of evolving and updating things as needed as more science rolls in. Each Quiz is designed to help you better understand your unique body composition (especially skinny fat), metabolism, diet, exercise, lifestyle, and overall health, sustainably in the short and long term. Accounts are free, private, anonymous, and secure. Free options are available.

References

1. Florida Atlantic University: Alarming Surge: Global Crisis of Childhood Overweight and Obesity, September 26, 2024, Gisele Galoustian. https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/childhood-obesity-epidemic
2. World Health Organization (WHO): Obesity and overweight, May 7, 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight
3. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Obesity and Severe Obesity Prevalence in Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023, September 2024, NCHS Data Brief No. 508, Samuel D. Emmerich, D.V.M., Cheryl D. Fryar, M.S.P.H., Bryan Stierman, M.D., M.P.H., and Cynthia L. Ogden, Ph.D., M.R.P. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db508.htm
4. World Economic Forum: Why obesity is rising and how we can live healthy lives, May 20, 2024. Shyam Bishen Head, Centre for Health and Healthcare; Member of the Executive Committee. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/03/global-obesity-healthy-lives/
5. NIH, National Library of Medicine: Update on the Obesity Epidemic: After the Sudden Rise, Is the Upward Trajectory Beginning to Flatten?, October 2, 2023, Chrysi Koliaki, Maria Dalamaga, and Stavros Liatis. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10748771/
6. Daily Mail: America’s military’s fitness crisis: Alarm over rising obesity and number of ‘skinny fat’ recruits who can’t pass physical tests, October 8, 2023, Lewis Pennock. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12593219/Americas-militarys-fitness-crisis-Alarm-rising-obesity-number-skinny-fat-recruits-pass-physical-tests.html
7. The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Military’s Weighty Challenge: ‘Skinny-Fat’ Recruits, October 1, 2023, Ben Kesling. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/us-military-unfit-recruits-weight-aa17996b
8. 3DLook: Skinny Fat: The Hidden Health Crisis, September 8, 2025, Oleksii Kaplanskyi. https://3dlook.ai/content-hub/skinny-fat-body-type/
9. World Health Organization (WHO): Over a billion people living with mental health conditions – services require urgent scale-up, September 2, 2025. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-people-living-with-mental-health-conditions-services-require-urgent-scale-up
10. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Protecting the Nation’s Mental Health, June 9, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/about/what-cdc-is-doing.html
11. Psychology Today: 6 Reasons Youth Mental Health Is Getting Worse, September 4, 2025, Jason Whiting Ph.D. (Reviewed by Margaret Foley). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-lies-and-conflict/202508/6-reasons-youth-mental-health-is-getting-worse
12. NIH, National Cancer Institute: As Rates of Some Cancers Increase in Younger People, Researchers Search for Answers, May 14, 2025, Carmen Phillips. https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2025/early-onset-cancer-research-environment-genetics-support
13. UChicagoMedicine: Why are more young people getting cancer? What to know as cases rise, August 6, 2024, Jamie Bartosch. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/cancer-articles/why-are-more-young-people-getting-cancer
14. BBC: ‘These are people in the prime of life’: The worrying puzzle behind the rise in early-onset cancer, October 5, 2024, David Cox. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241004-the-puzzle-of-rising-early-onset-breast-and-colorectal-cancer-in-younger-people
15. Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan: Why are more young people being diagnosed with cancer?, October 31, 2024, Tara Roberts. https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/why-are-more-young-people-being-diagnosed-cancer
16. Texas Health: Study Shows Younger Generations Are More Health-Conscious Than Previous Generations, April 25, 2023, Jessica Ngo, M.D. https://www.texashealth.org/areyouawellbeing/Health-and-Well-Being/Study-Shows-Younger-Generations-Are-More-Health-Conscious-Than-Previous-Generations
17. UNICEF: Youth take lead in promoting better nutrition and healthier young lives, October 20, 2023. https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/press-releases/youth-take-lead-promoting-better-nutrition-and-healthier-young-lives
18. Geneva Graduate Institute, Albert Hirshman Centre on Democracy: Mapping youth policies across 32 countries: Legal frameworks and strategies for education, employment, and well-being, January 2025, Case postale 1672, Luciano Monti, Claudia Cioffi, Husna Zarshoi Ghazi, and Christine Lutringer. https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/sites/internet/files/2025-01/WP4_AHCD_Monti_Cioffi_Ghazi_Lutringerpdf_0.pdf
19. Skinny Fat Science: What Is Skinny Fat?, July 26, 2024. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/what-is-skinny-fat/
20. Skinny Fat Science: Skinny Fat is a Lack of Genetic Muscle – Beyond Normal-Weight Obesity, August 12, 2025. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/skinny-fat-is-a-lack-of-genetic-muscle-beyond-normal-weight-obesity/
21. Skinny Fat Science: Is Skinny Fat Genetic?, November 27, 2024. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/is-skinny-fat-genetic/
22. Skinny Fat Science: Is Muscle/Mass Genetic and How Does It Affect Skinny Fat?, November 20, 2024. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/is-muscle-mass-genetic-and-how-does-it-affect-skinny-fat/
23. Skinny Fat Science: How Skinny Fat Affects Metabolism, August 7, 2024. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/how-skinny-fat-affects-metabolism/
24. American Institute for Cancer Research: Study: Vast majority of cancers caused by lifestyle, not “bad luck”, December 18, 2015, Mya Nelson. https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/study-vast-majority-of-cancers-caused-by-lifestyle-not-bad-luck/
25. Fortune, Health: Up to 90% of Cancer Cases Caused by Lifestyle or Environment, Study Says, December 17, 2015, Dan Mitchell. https://fortune.com/2015/12/17/cancer-causes-lifestyle-study/
26. NIH, National Library of Medicine: Cancer is a Preventable Disease that Requires Major Lifestyle Changes, July 25, 2008, Preetha Anand, Ajaikumar B Kunnumakara, Chitra Sundaram, Kuzhuvelil B Harikumar, Sheeja T Tharakan, Oiki S Lai, Bokyung Sung, and Bharat B Aggarwal✉. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2515569/
27. AntiCancer Lifestyle Program: 90-95% of cancers are due to lifestyle behaviors and infections–not genetics. https://anticancerlifestyle.org/resources/90-95-of-cancers-are-due-to-lifestyle-behaviors-and-infections-not-genetics/
28. New York Post: New evidence that ultra-processed foods are linked to cancer: study, November 24, 2023, Marc Lallanilla. https://nypost.com/2023/11/24/health/new-evidence-that-ultra-processed-foods-are-linked-to-cancer-study/
29. Wikipedia: MyPyramid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPyramid
30. Harvard Health Publishing: Comparison of the Healthy Eating Plate and the USDA’s MyPlate, Sari Kalin, The Nutrition Source. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/comparison-of-healthy-eating-plate-and-usda-myplate
31. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), What is My Plate? https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/what-is-myplate
32. Skinny Fat Science: Scientific Skinny Fat MRI Study – Proving What Skinny Fat Is, May 26, 2025. https://skinnyfat.fellowone.com/skinny-fat-science/scientific-skinny-fat-mri-study-proving-what-skinny-fat-is/