Visceral fat, which is invisible to the human eye, surrounds sections of your internal organs and supports your heart, lungs, and digestive system. On the other hand, having too much visceral fat may cause your tissues and blood to release more cytokines. Higher levels of these cytokines, sometimes referred to as adipokines, have been linked to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer.
Poonam Sachdev reviewed The Medical Truths About Belly Fat on June 25, 2022
So, what actions can you take to prevent visceral fat from being a dirty cop? Extra visceral fat generally conforms to the same rules as the more commonly known “subcutaneous fat.” When you pinch an inch, that’s your subcutaneous fat. An appropriate diet, consistent exercise, and, if required, medication and surgery can all help reduce this kind of fat.
“Reducing visceral fat can lower associated risks with obesity,” said Ethan Lazarus, MD, the immediate past president of the Obesity Medicine Association.
What Are the Feelings of the Experts?
You cannot easily or accurately determine how much visceral fat you have. Still, the majority of specialists agree that it makes up about 10% of total body fat, so you tend to have more of it when your overall weight increases. Visceral fat is typically linked to health risks when a person’s waist circumference is greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men. Measurements should generally be taken at the level of the hip hump and across the belly button for most persons.
Visceral fat is bad for overall health, according to Kurian, an obesity specialist with a private practice in and around New York City and president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. She continues by saying that it can specifically result in prediabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and fatty liver disease, among other issues. It may also have an impact on ailments like sleep apnea.
Lazarus, the proprietor of the Clinical Nutrition Center in Greenwood Village, Colorado, admitted that visceral fat can cause systemic inflammation. However, there are undoubtedly other ways it can cause health problems. Perhaps by a more hormonal method, visceral fat “is promoting diseases like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or uterine cancer risk.” As a result, the choices are many.
Learn How to Avoid Overeating
A 2022 study that was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that bariatric surgery was linked to a 48% lower risk of death from these tumors in obese individuals and a 32% lower risk of obesity-related cancer. Lazarus claims that studies have linked an increased risk of 13 malignancies to an excess of visceral fat. Another study conducted that same year discovered a link between bariatric surgery and a decreased risk of heart disease, including in people 65 years of age and older.
Beyond Body Mass Index
Furthermore, body mass index measurements cannot reliably quantify the risk associated with visceral fat.
Kathleen M. Zelman, RD, LD, MPH, evaluated the medical causes of belly fat on February 20, 2023.
“I see a lot of [White] women in their 60s with a BMI between 27 and 30, and based on their other measures, they have,” Lazarus said. sky-high visceral fat and really high health risks.” “And I observe younger individuals with low fat and a BMI of 34.”
In terms of visceral fat, he said, “BMI is really letting us down.”
Kurian accepted, acknowledging BMI’s limitations. Even when muscular, like Michael Strahan, a high BMI doesn’t always indicate obesity accurately.
A doctor’s body composition assessment, which Kurian said she offers to her patients, can be used to analyze fat. She asserted that letting patients see the results of the analysis can inspire them.
Interestingly, bariatric surgery does not eliminate fat. Instead, she maintained that losing weight generally has positive health effects.