Losing the Fat that Lurks Within

Successful weight loss isn't just about pounds right?like to see in the mirror, this kind of fat is actually
For one way to know if you're at your Happydangerous. Fortunately, the doctors say it is also
Weight, the weight at which you look and feel yourrelatively easy to release this kind of fat. Since those
best, you have only to look in the mirror and try onfat cells are so metabolically active, it responds to
or imagine yourself in a bikini or a Speedo. Niceproper diet and exercise, though not to sit-ups and
picture? If there's a pronounced belly effect in thisliposuction, natch.
image, you're probably carrying too much visceral fat.The dietary warning flags go up for saturated fats,
That's fat we really want to lose.the ones that are solid, like butter, lard, and animal
That's the fat that's actually inside your body, notfat. I bet you already knew to stay away from
just under the skin like subcutaneous fat is. No, thethose, but now we have another reason.
visceral fat is wrapping itself around your liver andBut one of the best-studied ways to keep visceral
other vitals. Not only that, it doesn't just sit therefat from increasing with age and to even get it off
quietly destroying your buff image. Oh no. Those fatonce it's there is with exercise. Researchers at Duke
cells are veritable factories, gushing bad hormonesUniversity Medical Center reported that overweight
and spitting out factors that shut down thepeople in their study would gain about 8.6% in six
production of the good ones. Recent studies havemonths, or about 4 more pounds a year, if they
implicated excess visceral fat as increasing the risk ofdidn't exercise, much of it visceral fat, in an article
heart disease, diabetes, and, possibly, dementia andpublished in the October, 2005, issue of the Journal
some types of cancer. Not a pretty thought.of Applied Physiology. Duke exercise physiologist Cris
For instance, in a study on 27,000 people in 52Slentz, Ph.D., the lead author, said "We also found
countries, scientists found that the body mass index,that a modest exercise program equivalent to a brisk
a commonly used indicator of obesity which uses a30-minute walk six times a week can prevent
weight to height ratio, wasn't really different inaccumulation of visceral fat, while even more
people who had heart attacks compared to thoseexercise can actually reverse the amount of visceral
who didn't. But the waist-to-hip circumference ratio, afat."
measurement of visceral fat, was significantly higherThe 30 minutes six times a week translates to about
in the heart attack victims, regardless of gender or12 miles a week of either brisk walking or jogging. At
other risk factors.about 17 miles of jogging or the equivalent on various
So what's a good waist to hip ratio? There is somecardio machines, the amount of visceral fat goes
controversy about this, but an often-cited "ideal"down. The next thing to study is the effect of
value for women is 0.8 or less and 0.95 or less foradding in some resistance or weight training and see
men. It's like the "apple" or "pear" shape comparisonsif that holds the visceral fat at bay or even makes it
we've heard about before.go away faster. The people who participated in this
Other studies on show just as chilling results forstudy weren't allowed to change their diet so the
those high visceral fat with respect to risk forresearchers could study one thing at a time. But that
metabolic syndrome, dementia, gallstones, breastdoesn't mean that we can't.
cancer in women, and overall death in men.Gotta to go find my tape measure, now. And my
So there we are. Besides being something we don'tpedometer. See you later.