In Search of the Best Candidate for Detection of Metabolically Obese Normal-Weight Phenotype

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that obeseindividuals have a worse metabolic profile thantheir normal weight counterparts. Despite this fact,there is a subgroup of non-obese individuals whorepresent some metabolic abnormalities such ashigh visceral adiposity, dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, or hypertension (Teixeira et al., 2015).These individuals who are entitled as MetabolicallyObese Normal-Weight (MONW), like the obesesubjects, have more susceptibility to obesityassociateddisorders such as cardiovascular diseasesand diabetes mellitus (Aung et al., 2014). The globalprevalence of MONW phenotype is estimated at 20% among adults (Wang et al., 2015). In Iranianpopulation, the prevalence of this phenotype wasreported 9.9 % and 11% in adults men and women,respectively (Hadaegh et al., 2007). Also, in thefirst issue of JNFS, a study by Karandish et al., hadnicely addressed the distribution of metabolicabnormalities among Iranian pediatrics withdifferent obesity phenotypes. They reported that 5.4% of participants were MONW phenotype and hada higher percentage of abnormalities in triglycerides(TG) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-c) levels compared to individuals with otherobesity phenotypes (Karandish et al., 2016).