Mitochondrial autophagy in diabetes-related cognitive decline and skin ulcers: Mechanistic insights and therapeutic implications

Figure 3 Classification of obesity phenotypes on the basis of metabolic health and body mass index. The diagram illustrates the heterogeneous nature of obesity by categorizing individuals into four distinct phenotypes on the basis of diabetes/cardiovascular disease risk and body mass index (BMI). The classification includes the following: (1) Metabolically unhealthy obese: Characterized by increased adiposity, inflammation, adipose tissue dysfunction, and insulin resistance, with predominant visceral fat distribution and reduced lipid storage capacity in the liver and skeletal muscle; (2) Metabolically healthy obese: Featuring increased adiposity but preserved metabolic function, predominantly subcutaneous fat distribution, and maintained lipid storage capacity; (3) Metabolically unhealthy normal-weight/metabolically obese normal-weight: Normal BMI individuals with metabolic dysfunction; and (4) Metabolically healthy nonobese: Normal weight individuals with healthy metabolic profiles. This phenotypic classification demonstrated that metabolic health status does not always correlate directly with BMI, highlighting the importance of adipose tissue distribution and function rather than total body weight in determining diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk. MUO: Metabolically unhealthy obese; MHO: Metabolically healthy obese; MUNO/MONW: Metabolically unhealthy normal-weight/metabolically obese normal-weight; MHNO: Metabolically healthy nonobese. This figure was created by BioRender.com (Supplementary material).