Why belly fat is a threat to your health

What is belly fat

Fat located in the waist area is called abdominal (from the Latin abdomen - "belly").

There are two types of abdominal fat:

Subcutaneous - located in front of the abdominal muscles. This is the same fold of fat that you can grab with your fingers to show how fat you are.
Visceral (lat. viscera - "insides") - is located behind the muscles of the press and surrounds the internal organs.

Subcutaneous abdominal fat does not pose a particular health hazard, except that it spoils the figure. But visceral fat is really dangerous and can lead to serious illness.

Why Visceral Fat Is So Dangerous

Visceral fat actively releases hormones and other substances, increasing the risk of developing dangerous diseases:

Metabolic syndrome. Visceral fat produces retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), which is harmful to glucose metabolism. Subcutaneous abdominal fat also releases RBP4, but in incomparably lower amounts. RBP4 reduces insulin sensitivity, increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
Coronary heart disease. A large waist circumference increases the risk of coronary heart disease, regardless of body mass index.
Cancer. Visceral fat stimulates fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2), which can cause body cells to proliferate and turn into tumors. Visceral fat has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer in women before and after menopause.
Asthma. Asthma is more common among people with abdominal obesity than among people with normal amounts of belly fat.
Dementia People with a high percentage of visceral fat in old age are more at risk of developing dementia - a persistent decline in cognitive abilities. Moreover, the risk is increased even with a normal body mass index.

How to tell if you have visceral fat

The body mass index (BMI) will not help determine the amount of visceral fat. Sometimes a large percentage of internal fat is found in people with a normal BMI.

There are three ways to detect abdominal obesity predicting visceral fat:

Measure your waist. Take a tailor's meter, measure your waist at the most prominent places. For women, the waist should be no more than 80 cm, for men - 94–95 cm.
Measure the waist to hip ratio. Divide your waist circumference by your hip circumference. For women, the normal value is 0.8, for men it is 0.95.
Measure the sagittal diameter. Take a long ruler and some long, flat object such as a rail or a book. Lie on the floor on your back, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor. Place the ruler vertically next to your side, and place the book or rail parallel to the floor on the most prominent point of your abdomen. The book and ruler should touch at right angles. Abdominal obesity is diagnosed with indicators above 25 cm in both sexes.

How to get rid of visceral fat

Here are some steps to reduce visceral fat:

Cut back on the calorie intake. A study found that five months of a 400-calorie-reduced diet reduced visceral fat by 25%.
Do at least three workouts a week. Choose aerobic exercise: they are most effective for losing visceral fat and work even without diet. Choose brisk walking, light running, cycling, swimming. The more intense and longer you exercise, the more calories you will lose and the faster you will lose weight.
Eliminate processed, high-carb foods. This is white bread, pastries, sweets. Such food causes the accumulation of visceral fat, increases the level of triglycerides in the blood, and even increases the production of the hormone serotonin. Scientists believe that this can alter the brain's signals of hunger and satiety and make you eat more. A low-carb diet can help reduce visceral fat, increase insulin sensitivity, and lower cholesterol levels.
Eat more fiber. Fiber from cereals, vegetables and fruits provides a feeling of fullness and helps reduce visceral fat.
Consume more protein. People who eat more protein have less belly fat. Like fiber, protein helps prolong the feeling of fullness, so you eat less, even if you don't count calories. In addition, it increases energy consumption due to the increased thermal effect - the energy that is needed to digest it. Consume at least 1.6 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight.
Get enough sleep. The amount of sleep is directly related to your waist circumference: the less you sleep, the greater your risk of developing abdominal obesity. Lack of sleep decreases insulin sensitivity, increases the levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin and the stress hormone cortisol. To avoid abdominal obesity, sleep at least 7-8 hours a day.
Cut out alcohol. Calories from ethanol will not be stored in fat, but while they are being processed, the rest of the calories from alcoholic drinks and snacks will not be burned and replenish your fat stores. In addition, in women, moderate alcohol consumption causes an increase in testosterone and fat deposition in the waist area.

Do not ignore this problem. will help you love yourself and not worry about being overweight, but the health risks will not go away. Plus, you don't have to lose weight before to get all the health benefits.

Remember: when you lose weight, visceral fat is lost faster than subcutaneous fat, so you will reduce health risks even before you improve your appearance.