Is Your Belly Fat Killing You?
August 15, 2011, By Avery Hurt 1 comment
Nobody likes to look at it—particularly on ourselves—but belly fat is not just jiggly and gross. It’s downright dangerous. That bulge around the middle can be a predictor of some serious long-term health problems: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, maybe even Alzheimer’s disease.
Actually, the stuff that spills over the top of your jeans is not the problem. Subcutaneous fat is located just below your skin (the layer you can pinch). It typically doesn’t cause too much trouble. What you need to worry about is the fat that lurks beneath, pushing the other stuff over your belt.
What we call belly fat and scientists call "visceral fat" is different from other fat. It lies deep inside your body nestled around your internal organs. It serves as a shock absorber for your delicate innards and as insulation to help conserve body heat.
Visceral fat is also very metabolically active, much more so than subcutaneous fat. It produces hormones, enzymes and proteins, and it generally aids and abets the chemical reactions that keep your body humming smoothly along. In proper amounts, visceral fat is just one more metabolic miracle. Get too much of it, however, and it turns nasty, decreasing your sensitivity to insulin, increasing triglycerides, decreasing HDL (good) cholesterol, raising blood pressure and contributing to inflammation.
Low Tech Screening
Having a lot of belly fat is one of the indicators of a condition that used to be called Syndrome X. Apparently that sounded too much like the title of a Michael Crichton novel, so they changed the name to “metabolic syndrome.” I like the name Syndrome X better because it sounds more insidious (and scarier) than “metabolic syndrome,” and this really is an insidious problem. Whatever it's called, it can be quietly damaging your body and increasing your risk of serious illnesses for years before you notice that anything is wrong.
You have metabolic syndrome if you have three or more of the following:
- Blood pressure higher than 130/85
- Fasting blood glucose greater than or equal to 100 mg/dL
- Low HDL cholesterol (less than 40 mg/dL for men, less than 50 for women)
- Triglycerides 150 mg/dL or higher
- Large waist circumference (40 inches or more for men, 35 for women)
The big belly should be first on the list because, as I mentioned, it actually contributes to the other items. And also because it is the only thing on the list that you can check without having some kind of medical screening test. A simple cloth tape measure is all you need to determine if those love handles aren’t at all loveable.
Stand in an upright but relaxed posture, without sucking in your gut, and measure your mid-section just beneath your navel. If you measure more than 40 inches (35 if you are a woman), you may have problems. Before you do anything else, get those other indicators checked.
NEXT: Waist Management
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