Kuala Lampur, May 18 -- Some of the unhealthiest people look perfectly slim. They receive compliments about their figure, register a "normal" reading on the bathroom scale, and see nothing alarming in the mirror.

Yet beneath that exterior, something quietly damaging is taking place, their bodies are accumulating excess fat while losing the very muscle that keeps them alive and well.

This is sarcopenic obesity, widely known as being "skinny fat". It is neither rare nor trivial, and it is far more common than most Malaysians realise.

The term sounds contradictory. How can a person be simultaneously thin and obese? The answer lies not in appearance but in composition.

Body weight is simply the sum of everything inside us, bone, water, fa...