A strong handgrip could be a sign of health among overweight people, with research suggesting it shows muscle strength that relates to a decreased risk of obesity-related health complications.
The study, in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, underscores the importance of improving muscle mass and strength in people with higher body weight.
“Our findings show that muscle strength is a powerful, early sign of who is most at risk of developing obesity-induced organ dysfunctions among people with excess body fat,” said study author researcher Yun Shen, PhD, from Louisiana State University.
“Because grip strength is easy to measure and strength can be improved with weight training, this research points to a practical, low‑cost way to identify at‑risk individuals and to act early.”
Body mass index (BMI) is currently the main way to diagnose obesity, but it neither differentiates between fat and lean mass nor captures variations in body composition and fat distribution.
As a result, BMI-based definitions of obesity may inaccurately estimate actual adiposity among diverse age groups and ethnic populations as well as between men and women.
For example, research using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry has shown that the prevalence of obesity is markedly higher among young and middle-aged adults when determined by total body fat percentage rather than BMI-based definitions.
Conversely, elevated BMI values among athletes may primarily reflect increased muscle mass rather than excess adiposity.
In January this year, a consensus statement in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology formally recognized obesity as a clinical disease, emphasizing the direct detrimental effects of excessive adiposity on organ function, systemic health, and limitations in the activities of daily life.
The concept of “preclinical obesity” also emerged, in which there is an excess in anthropometric measures without overt obesity-related dysfunctions.
To investigate how muscle strength might influence progression from preclinical to clinical obesity, researchers looked at information held on the nationally representative UK Biobank biomedical database.
Specifically, the team studied 93,275 participants with preclinical obesity, based on an excess of anthropometric parameters, defined as elevated BMI combined with at least one abnormal measure among waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, or percentage body fat, in the absence of obesity-induced dysfunctions.
The population was then categorized into three groups according to sex-specific grip strength (men: ≤ 36.5 kg, 36.5-44.0 kg, and >44.0 kg; women: ≤ 20.5 kg, 20.5-26.0 kg, and >26.0 kg).
The researchers report that each standard deviation increase in grip strength was associated with a significantly reduced risk of preclinical obesity progression at each stage, with the strongest inverse association observed in baseline to first dysfunction (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]=0.86).
The inverse association was consistently observed in both men and women. Specifically, higher grip strength was associated with a significantly lower risk of transitioning from the stage of two or more obesity-induced dysfunctions to death relating to cardiovascular disease or cancer.
“Our study demonstrated for the first time that increased grip strength significantly mitigates the risk of progression from preclinical obesity to obesity-induced dysfunctions and subsequent mortality,” the researchers concluded.
“Moreover, this protective association persisted across diverse anthropometric measures and sensitivity analyses utilizing alternative muscle-related metrics [muscle-to-weight ratio and lean-to-weight ratio].
“These findings provide novel evidence emphasizing muscle strength improvement as a potential early intervention strategy for preventing adverse health outcomes associated with the preclinical obesity status.”
