Belly Fat Blues News

OK, I'll do some cut and paste, maybe that'll spark some interest.


Belly fat blues
A noxious type of fat raises risk for heart disease, diabetes and more. Luckily, it's easy to rid with exercise.
By Shari Roan, Times Staff Writer
April 24, 2006

HAVING a little paunch is just no good with a Speedo or bikini. Health-wise, it's none too pretty either.

That bulge is the outward sign of a deeper problem: visceral fat, a kind of biological monstrosity that, in excess, wreaks havoc on the body, raising the risk for heart disease, diabetes, possibly even dementia and some types of cancer.

Lying deep inside the body, wrapping around the liver and other major organs, visceral fat acts like a kind of organ itself ?- spewing out bad hormones and squashing the production of good ones. It sets up the body for sickness as the years roll by and additional fat accumulates.

The evidence now is so compelling that some experts suggest it's time to forget about scales and weight loss and focus on waists and "inch loss."

Luckily, visceral fat doesn't appear to be a particularly stubborn enemy. Health experts have discovered that consistent, moderate exercise by itself appears to help the body rid itself of vast amounts of deep abdominal fat ?- even when the scales show the pounds aren't dropping very fast.

This emerging science carries a message for consumers: Measure your waist circumference. And reduce it if need be. Doing something about that paunch could help save your life.

Recent studies on visceral fat help explain a well-established fact: that having a pear shape is more healthful than having an apple shape. A pear shape is caused by subcutaneous fat resting just under the skin. Apple is caused by the deep, visceral fat. What this means is that although both types of people ?- apple and pear ?- can be overweight, the person with the apple shape has more health risks.

It also means that people with normal weight can be at a higher health risk without realizing it.

Most people gain abdominal fat with age, but research shows the tendency to put on weight around the middle may be inherited. A study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identified particular genes that appear to dictate how fat develops and where it's stored.

A long list of illnesses

Meanwhile, the evidence for visceral fat's ill effects is mounting.

In research published in November in the Lancet, doctors concluded that a person's waist measurement is a more accurate predictor of heart attack than the body mass index, or BMI, which is a weight-to-height ratio.

Analyzing data from 27,000 people in 52 countries, the scientists found that BMI measurements were only slightly higher among people who had had heart attacks compared with those who hadn't. But heart attack sufferers had a much higher waist-to-hip ratio (a measurement that reflects abdominal fat) compared with those who hadn't, regardless of other cardiovascular risk factors. This finding was true for men and women in every ethnic group.

"This was the first study that really documented this relationship across all ethnic groups," says Dr. Arya M. Sharma, a co-author of the study from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and director of the Canadian Obesity Network.

Other studies have linked visceral fat to metabolic syndrome ?- a grouping of risk factors, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, that can precede diabetes and heart disease. For example, Wake Forest University researcher Barbara Nicklas published a study in 2004 showing that among overweight, post-menopausal women, those with the most abdominal fat were the most likely to have metabolic syndrome.

Additional illnesses may be influenced by excess abdominal weight too. A Kaiser Permanente study presented earlier this year at an obesity conference showed that people with the most abdominal fat were 145% more likely to develop dementia compared with people with the least amount of abdominal fat.


[skipped a lot of interesting commentary to keep post shorter]


Sit-ups and liposuction won't work (sit-ups merely tighten the muscle and liposuction only removes subcutaneous fat), but studies show that regular diet and exercise can lead to a substantial drop. "It's easier than reducing any other fat because the abdominal fat is metabolically very active," Sharma of McMaster University says.


[skipped interesting studies]


Ultimately, scientists hope that efforts to understand how visceral fat functions may lead to medications that target it and its byproducts. One drug under investigation, rimonabant, has been shown to help reduce waist circumference. For now, however, exercise may be the most effective way to reduce abdominal fat.


Sources: Philip A. Wood and Richard N. Bergman

Related article, gives how to measure, and what the measurements are judged to mean -

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-fatside24apr24,0,250816.story

As someone who consistently packs it on in the middle when I gain weight, I found that interesting. I've just started exercising over the last 6 weeks and have been dissapointed in the lack of weight lost, but never weighed myself. My clothes fit a bit better, but I haven't gone down a size in clothes yet. That article gave me a little bit of hope.

Me too.

printed out article ... will read on the train on the way home, while stuffing my trap with Mars Bar.

Great article, osso darling. I'm off to the Y with all that inspiration!

More on visceral fat from the Chronicle today

Big belly may be matter of stress
Experts test if relaxation techniques aid in trimming abdominal fat
Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007


In the world of metaphorical body image, apples are not the fruit of choice.

People with "apple-shaped" bodies -- usually defined by a thick waist or a pot belly -- are more likely to have the most dangerous kind of fat in their abdominal cavities than those with a pear shape, in other words, those who carry their weight in their thighs, hips and butts.

The difference between the two physiques may be a matter of stress.

Recent research has suggested that abdominal fat is related to a hormone released when we're under stress, and now UCSF researchers are looking for 50 overweight women to participate in a study on stress-relief techniques and body fat.

The goal isn't necessarily to help the women lose weight, but to see if easing stress helps reduce abdominal fat -- and lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

"We hope they will lose fat in general, but we're not as concerned with whether they lose weight as read on a scale," said Elissa Epel, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF and an expert on the physiological effects of stress. "We are really focusing on improving these women's health through reducing their visceral fat. Where you store the fat is really important."

The fat in a pot belly or a thick waist is not particularly unhealthy, Epel said. But having fat in both areas is a sign of too much visceral fat deep in the abdominal cavity, surrounding internal organs. Doctors don't yet know exactly why visceral fat leads to a greater risk of heart disease and diabetes, but it could have to do with the proximity to the liver and a complex process that promotes atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

A person doesn't have to be overweight to have too much visceral fat. For example, a woman could be very lean but have a small pot belly that suggests visceral fat lies underneath. Asian Americans in particular are prone to putting on abdominal fat while still looking slender, doctors say. The key is to look at the waist-to-hip ratio -- if the waist is wider than the hips, that could mean trouble.

For years, researchers -- along with pretty much anyone who's ever tried to lose weight -- have known there's a tie between stress and fat. Of course, everyone reacts to stress differently, and the same stress that may drive one person to snack may make someone else lose his or her appetite for reasons that remain a mystery to researchers.

Still, many people overeat when they're stressed, and they're more likely to grab a bag of potato chips than baby carrots. But only recently has the connection become better defined and identified as a complex biochemical reaction.

Specifically, cortisol, a hormone that is released when people are under stress, seems to work with insulin to create visceral fat, Epel said. At the same time, cortisol prompts people to crave "comfort foods" -- anything with sugar or fat in it.

At one time in human evolution, such a response to stress would have made sense -- back when "stress" meant drought or famine, among other life-threatening disasters, and sugary, fatty foods would supply energy needed for survival, said Mary Dallman, a professor of physiology in the neuroscience program at UCSF, who has studied the effects of chronic stress.

"A lot of the stress response seems to be about the body being prepared to fight or flight. Your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, but our society has gotten a bit ahead of it," Dallman said. "You can work around (the stress response). You can go for a bike ride, read a book, get away from what's pissing you off. And then after a little quiet time you can (safely) look at grabbing something and putting it into your mouth."

When researchers first began identifying the link between cortisol and food cravings, naturally dieters jumped on a potential weight-loss strategy -- drugs designed to reduce or counteract the cortisol. But it's not that simple, many doctors say.

It all goes back to the idea that a person can be thin and still have too much visceral fat. Cortisol alone doesn't necessarily cause people to gain weight, it just helps them create the wrong kind of fat.

That's why the researchers in the UCSF study aren't promising weight loss to their study participants.

In the study, 50 women will be divided into two groups, one of which will start stress reduction classes right away, the other in six months. The study is focusing on women because they are more likely to turn to comfort foods in times of stress.

The women will learn stress-relief techniques in weekly classes, and also will be taught to recognize the triggers that prompt them to turn to comfort foods, and how they can avoid those triggers.

They also will learn to meditate with their food in a practice called "mindful eating," said Jennifer Daubenmier, a postdoctoral fellow with the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment, who is leading the study with Epel. For example, participants might be asked to eat one piece of fruit every day and take notes on how the fruit smells, how it's shaped, the texture of its skin and how they're feeling while they eat it. The goal is to get them thinking about how and why they eat, and ultimately help them make smart food choices.

The women will not be told to change their diet or exercise routines. But ideally, at the end of three months of classes and six months of study, the women will have lost visceral fat, Daubenmier said.

"Weight loss is not the goal," said Daubenmier. "But we are thinking we will find a reduction in the visceral fat, which is really important. We're looking at breaking that stress-eating link."

How to qualify for UCSF's study
Women must weigh less than 300 pounds and have apple-shaped figures. They must be between the ages of 21 and 50 and not recently pregnant. They must not be diabetic or have heart disease.

Anyone interested in participating should e-mail [email protected]. The study is being funded by the Mount Zion Health Fund.

Determine your shape
How to find out if you have an apple-shaped body:

-- Measure the circumference of your waist, then your hips.

-- Divide the circumference of your waist by that of your hips.

-- If you're a man and the number is greater than 1, you have an apple shape and may have too much belly fat. For women, who have wider hips, you may have too much belly fat if the number is greater than 0.8.

I suspect this is important news. It seems to implicate worry for the older and overweight, but from other articles visceral fat may also occur with the thinner among us.

Connection between visceral fat and diabetes - LINK

Mindful eating:

http://www.mindfuleating.org/MindfulEating.html

I'm going to lose my mind trying to post on this thread -

stay and watch...





Well, in this case it isn't re calories, et al, Noddy - or does that site cover the visceral fat question, as related to stress?
visceral fat being that wrapped around the abdominal organs..

One could make a leap that stress predicts diabetes 2 via visceral fat - but I won't - just saying it's interesting.

For what it's worth, stress does cause a rise in blood sugar. I have no idea whether that is on topic, or not.

Seems on topic to me.

At this point, I am only hoping to post three word sentences, if that.

Book mark with side note-

for those fighting that bulge like me
Lost 18 lbs eating approx 100 calories every hour. ( just weighed myself last week. Im also down 2 sizes. )

Bowl fulls of broccoli, an english muffin, bananas, apples, ham on toast..etc

but this is not the weight loss thread so I wont fill it with what I do.
I just wanted to throw that into the mix of people heading to the gym, and this great article.

Both of the articles are interesting, re visceral fat...

must I give up lard?

I don't think so, relative to butter, and relative to transfats, lard seems to hold its own. But you shouldn'a lard wallow. Better to not lard up. To me, some lard is forgivable re personal happiness, but you see I've a bias. And that last bit of lard can be the bit that does you in...

But that's me, and hey I'm only a reader of much, not a person employed in the food related industry or academia.




But wait, not sure what lard has to do with the fat coat on internal organs...





I'm in a weird place in that I just finished a book by an old boss of mine, he's a medical thriller writer. Thus my eyes dart around looking at medical thrills - aha, LARD!!!!

I just tried the suggestions as described HERE with a small handful of grapes. I failed miserably. Estimated time to eat 12 grapes - less than a minute. Suggested time - too damned long!

I just tried the suggestions as described HERE with a small handful of grapes. I failed miserably. Estimated time to eat 12 grapes - less than a minute. Suggested time - too damned long!

"Mindful eating" is cited as one way to counteract stressful nibbling.

JPB--

If we lived in the world of the banana pickers, we probably wouldn't need thorough meditation to cut down on calorie intake. We'd get plenty of exercise and wouldn't be able to afford to overeat.