We have a joking term for it -- "beer belly," but the reality is that the kind of fat that accumulates in and around the abdominal region is no laughing matter. In fact, it can have some serious health implications.
There are two types of fat contained within the body: visceral and subcutaneous. Subcutaneous fat is the padding beneath your skin and is not a health risk unless excessive. Think of it like the insulation in the walls of your home. Visceral fat is the one we call "belly fat." What makes visceral fat dangerous is the inflammatory hormones it secretes. Many people know belly fat is not attractive, but may not realize it is a metabolically active tissue with blood vessels running throughout that can be dangerous or even deadly.
Research Reveals The Dangers
A 1998 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism examined what happens when visceral and subcutaneous fat are observed in a Petri dish. The visceral fat released three times more toxic inflammatory chemicals than the subcutaneous fat.
Visceral fat is dangerous for a variety of reasons:
Measure Up
Men with a waist circumference larger than 40 inches, or women with a 35-inch waist or greater, are at a high risk of disease due to increased visceral fat.
To measure your waist, place the tape measurement around the circumference of your waist at the point of your belly button. This measure is more important than the number on the scale: waist size is more important than weight.
It is important to remember visceral fat did not come on overnight, and will not come off easily. This type of fat is stubborn. Consistency with a healthy balanced diet and exercise program is required if you want to see permanent body and health changes.
Lifestyle Change Can Help You Bust Visceral Fat
1. Exercise just 30 minutes per day. "Moderate levels of cardio-respiratory fitness are associated with a 50 percent lower death rate, and this applies in both women and men," states Dr. Steven Blair, professor of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina and former director of the Cooper Institute. Dr. Blair defines moderate intensity exercise as walking for 30 minutes on five or more days of the week. If there ever was a magic bullet to lowering fat in the body and increasing health, this is it.
2. Stick to a nutritious, anti-inflammatory diet. Consuming unprocessed food in its natural state such as local organic produce, nuts/seeds, lean protein such as grass fed meat, pasture raised poultry and eggs, wild fish, organic dairy, unprocessed grains such as buckwheat, wild or brown rice, quinoa; and healthy fats such as cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil.
3. Eat mindfully. Take 10 minutes out of your busy day to focus on your food and the enjoyment and nourishment it gives you. Eating mindfully helps with being in touch with the amount of food your body needs to match your metabolic rate, keeping your body fat normal.
It is possible to rebound from the belly bulge. By exercising, eating an anti-inflammatory diet and eating mindfully, you'll not only gain a trimmer waistline, but an overall healthier you!
Susan is the author of A Recipe for Life by the Doctor's Dietitian. For more information, visit susandopart.com
Follow Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D., C.D.E. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/smnutritionist
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Unfortunately, your waistline won't be trim for long, since no combination of diet, exercise, or behavioral therapy has ever produced long-term, much less permanent, weight-loss.
However, the idea that the only fat we should eat is Olive Oil is still off the mark - especially as we now know that cooking with olive oil damages it, and it's no longer beneficial. Healthy fats are natural fats, and they include animal fat, butter, saturated fat in coconut oil, etc... There are literally too many published studies to list here, showing that saturated fat is actually essential for good healthy.
People are still stuck in the past with Ancel keys debunked lipid hypothesis.
The best way to get rid of belly fat is train your body to use stored and dietary fat for energy (ketosis) rather than relying on carbohydrates for energy. This happens when we cut carbohydrates and increase dietary fat from real sources.
http://winningtheobesitybattle.wordpress.com
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/adrenal-fatigue/AN01583
"It's frustrating to have persistent symptoms your doctor can't readily explain. But accepting a medically unrecognized diagnosis from an unqualified practitioner could be worse. Unproven remedies for so-called "adrenal fatigue" may leave you feeling sicker, while the real cause — such as depression or fibromyalgia — continues to take its toll."
The Ancel Keys study was flawed as you stated. I still believe it is necessary to eat at least 80-90 grams of carbohyrate from the sources I mentioned for blood glucose and to stay out of ketosis - which in my experience does use fat stores but can also compromise lean tissues stores which compromises metabolic rate in the long term. Thanks for your kind words and comment.
Susan Dopart, M.S., R.D.
www.susandopart.com
I am severely insulin-resistant. I can get an insulin surge from a strawberry! After years of destroying my health with a low-fat diet, 11 years ago I figured out through my own research the reality of my condition, which the medical establishment including a physician husband for 20 years, couldn't understand. I can't handle more than about 20 grams of carbs a day in the form of non-starchy vegetables. I tried a small serving quinoa about a year ago and experienced the symptoms that I recognize as hyper/hypoglycemia swings and insulin swings. Because I am very active, I have tried eating nuts as snacks, but even that gives me too many carb grams and I can tell by the development of small "love handles" and some mood/energy swings. (the worst symptom is a feeling of constant, gnawing hunger) When that happens, I go back on Atkins induction and the excess body fat melts off and I feel fabulous again. It is pretty evident that I am in a state of perpetual ketosis. I have stopped measuring ketones, but that must be the source of my energy/fuel. I do multi-day long distance bike rides (50 to 70 miles a pop) without changing my diet. At the SAG stops, I am the only one not snacking; I don't "hit the wall" like carb loaders. Steve Phinney has done some good research on ketosis and elite athletes; worth looking at.
Ms. Dopart is correct in trying to get each of us to eat natural, non processed foods, because high fructose corn syrup, the most fattening ingredient of all, is in EVERYTHING you find in a typical grocery store --- except for meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, some oils/fats, some dairy (read labels!) and the whole grains she lists above.
Finally, many of us are emotionally and physically addicted to sugar and carbs (like an alcoholic or junkie), so if you can't give them up easily, cut down drastically and then go out for a 30-45 minute walk at some point every single day (walk on a treadmill in winter or in dangerous neighborhoods if female and alone), to counteract what sugar/carbs you did end up eating each day. Over time you will find yourself craving them less and less. Good luck!
Healthy Foods should be a major plank of any responsible political party and Kudos to Michelle Obama for making this her cause. What would really help would be regulations against drugs for animals and factory farms in general. Instead of giving money to big agriculture to make more and more Fraken foods, how about restoring the great plains and switching the protein supply to Beefalo. America has wasted Billions of dollars fighting nature on the great plains, and has lost.
Everything in factory farming ( the vast majority of North Americans eat food grown on factory farms) is designed to grow fast, put on weight anf keep the animal healthy until it gets to market.
I live in Colombia South America. We buy everything from farmers markets, that is from family owned farms. The produce is fresh and very cheap. a kilo of tomatoes is less that a dollar. You go to the local butcher ( there is one practically on every block) pick a piece of a cow that was killed the night before and was grass fed all its life and a kilo, with zero fat and bone costs you about 4 bucks.
Colombians are big meat eaters. They eat it three meals a day. It is a rare thing to see a morbidly obese colombian. It is fairly rare to see an over weight Colombian. The vast mjority of colombians are trim and fit.
I am from Canada and travel back every year. In the past ten years I have seen an explosian of morbidly obese people. When I stay in Canada for a month and eat Canadian food, I invariably gain 3 or 4 kilos. JUST IN ONE MONTH. After getting back home in Colombia that weight gradually comes off.
Canada shares the border with all those beef and cheese states. They grow em big up there, and its the cultural norm. The obese are called "healthy" and we are the stick people that need to eat a sandwich.
It would appear that different bodies store surplus energy reserves in different locations. Although not overweight, I noticed the appearance of an ever expanding girth. This was accompanied by the onset of acid-reflux problems, for which various remedies were tried. Eventually a regime of avoiding the intake of any foodstuff not associated with a hunger prompt, was adopted. No noticeable weight change has been observed. But the “spare tire” appears to have developed a slow puncture. And the acid-reflux, has to all intents and purposes completely disappeared. It occurs to me, that if self control is in short supply, there is a market for something that provides the placebo of comfort eating. While simultaneously being practically inert, with regard to the provision and uptake of calories.
It's not about waist size, not about BMI, not about how much one weighs--it's about healthy body fat percentage. It's the only way to measure health. Yeah, belly fat is bad... but carrying too much fat on your body is really bad. Not having enough lean body mass is really bad as well.
I changed my life by eating healthy and whole. Lean meats (plenty of them--need the protein to keep the muscle on as we age), loads of fresh vegetables and fruit, good oils, not too heavy on the carbs (but occasional bread pasta is real treat!) and MOVE--resistance training and aerobics and an excellent attitude.
I've done lots of diets in my life... I found a healthy lifestyle to be the best substitute diet of all!
1. Eating less, and eating better
2. Drinking fewer high calorie drinks
3. Doing intervals at least once a week when I exercise
4. Doing crunches starting at 3 sets of 15 every other day splitting up the 3 sets throughout the day, I'm up to 90 now, before I was trying to do them all at once, this is much better
5. Sex, No kidding. It not only makes me feel more connected with my partner, it makes me feel better about myself and about life. I hear it burns calories too. LOL
Recently I have heard soy products aren't that great -- and I have dairy allergies so I drink organic soy. Is that as bad as other soy? Should I move to non-organic rice or almond? Whats to stop me from becoming completely neurotic over a milk substitute choice?
My mind reels, can you tell?
Sometimes I go back and forth.
Do what you feel good in the gut with.
Right now I'm drinking skim....but I love almond milk and vanilla rice milk too.
Soy milk I wouldn't touch because I find it grows my belly (I don't care what they say)
Relax about it and enjoy what you can tolerate nicely in the gut. :)
And reward your healthier wine habits with drinking only the best you can regularly afford.
I read about it in a scientific study that 15 years doing research. All kinds of important things written here. Some big words with chemicals and different new age types of things here.
But yeah, eating less food. It really seems to work.
Dustin Rudolph
www.PursueAHealthyYou.com