Weight Trajectory Since Birth, Current Body Composition, Dietary Intake, and Glucose Tolerance in Young Underweight Japanese Women

Introduction: We studied weight trajectory since birth and dietary intake in Japanese female students majoring in nutrition sciences. Materials and Methods: Birth weight, adolescent height and weight, current body composition by whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, dietary intake, glucose tolerance, lipid profile, and adipokines were cross-sectionally compared between young underweight (body mass index [BMI] <18.5) and normal-weight (BMI ≥18.5 and <25.0) women with overweight (BMI ≥25.0) women as an internal reference. Results: Serum adiponectin (leptin) was the highest (lowest) in 42 underweight women, intermediate levels in 251 normal-weight women, and the lowest (highest) levels in 14 overweight women. Compared with normal-weight women, underweight women had lower weight at birth, at age 12, 15, and 20 years, but comparable height, and hence lower BMI at three time points. Underweight women had higher gluteofemoral fat adjusted for total body fat and weight-adjusted skeletal muscle mass, although absolute and height-adjusted fat mass and skeletal muscle mass were lower. Glucose tolerance assessed by oral glucose testing, serum triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol did not differ between the two groups. Daily intake expressed per kg of body mass of energy and protein was the highest in underweight women, intermediate levels in normal-weight women, and the lowest levels in overweight women. Conclusions: Some young Japanese women are underweight not because of a strong drive for thinness, but because they were born lighter and remained lean until young adults. Underweight was associated with higher gluteofemoral fat adjusted for total body fat and relative skeletal muscle mass.