Q I'm 170 cm and 66 kg, so rather lean, but my checkup said I have visceral fat and fatty liver, which shocked me. Even though I look slim, do I need to manage this?
A Even if you look slim, there is such a thing as "skinny fat" where a lot of fat sits inside the abdomen, and in that case hidden metabolic risk actually makes management necessary. Your waist size and whether you have visceral fat and fatty liver matter more than the number on the scale.
Detailed Answer
Even at a normal weight, there is "skinny fat" (TOFI - thin outside, fat inside) with little muscle but visceral fat and fatty liver. Because it doesn't show on the outside it's easy to let your guard down, but visceral fat is itself active tissue that disturbs blood sugar and lipids, raising the risk of fatty liver and diabetes even in slim people. It's more accurate to look at waist size, muscle mass, visceral fat and liver values together rather than the scale.
Our Korean Medicine Clinic's Perspective
Dongjedang sees skinny fat as "a state where the amount isn't large, but flow has stagnated and surplus has pooled inside." Since there's little surface fat to lose, management aimed at loosening the stagnation, reviving metabolism and easing the deep fat and liver burden suits better than forced weight loss.
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