Flat Belly Diet experts and scientists have known for years that excess body fat isn’t good for you. Obesity (which means “overfat”), is considered as deadly as smoking, according to some analyses. Traditionally obesity was determined by the number on a scale or, a bit more accurately, by taking the Body Mass Index (BMI), which calculates your body size while trying to account for bone mass. If your BMI is over 30, you’re considered obese.
One of the problems with the BMI, however, is that it doesn’t take into account muscle mass (as a result, some athletes with low body fat and a high percentage of muscle mass would be computed as obese, when clearly they aren’t).
More recently, however, studies have begun to show that while obesity isn’t good, carrying excess body fat specifically around your belly is really, really bad.
In research published in the medical journal Lancet, doctors concluded that a person's waist measurement is a more accurate forecaster of heart attacks than the body mass index (BMI). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have set a waist measurement cutoff point at above 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men--no matter how much you actually weigh--as an unhealthy sign of excess visceral fat, the dangerous hidden fat that surrounds vital organs deep inside your body.
Another measurement that is slightly more targeted to belly fat is the waist-to-hip ratio, which reflects the concentration of fat around your belly as opposed to around your hips or thighs. Analyzing data from 27,000 people in 52 countries, scientists found that heart attack sufferers had similar BMIs, but higher waist-to-hip ratios, than those who’d never had a heart attack.
Measuring Your Waist: Two Ways
The waist-to-hip ratio compares the measurement of the narrowest part of your waist to the broadest section of your hips. Your waist measurement should be taken in the spot that falls between the ribcage and the hipbone as viewed from the front.
Your hip measurement is truest if you turn sideways to the mirror and make sure you incorporate your derriere in the measurement. Now, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. For example, a woman with a 30-inch waist and 37-inch hips has a waist/hip ratio of 0.81.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for women should not exceed 0.8.
Measuring Visceral Fat: High Tech Methods
As we understand more about visceral fat and the various chronic--even deadly--diseases it can cause, researchers are developing increasingly more accurate, and expensive, ways to measure it. The latest test (as of December, 2007), is one that detects levels of a protein called RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4), which is produced in higher quantities in visceral fat compared with subcutaneous fat (the kind of fat you can see on your body when you “pinch an inch.”). In overweight people, blood levels of RBP4 are double or triple the amount compared with normal-weight people. But other tests are used, including:
CT (CAT) Scan
MRI
Sonogram/Ultrasound
DXA
The scary part is that you don’t have to be overweight to have too much visceral fat inside your body, putting your health at risk. This understanding is relatively new, and describes those who are thin on the outside but have excess fat on the inside. It’s hard to imagine that one could be thin and fat at the same time, but Jimmy Bell, PhD, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, has shown that it is possible. Dr. Bell and his team have been using MRI machines to scan nearly 800 people in an effort to produce what they call “fat maps.” His findings will surprise you: About 45 percent of the thin women and 65 percent of the slim men he tested carried excess visceral fat. Because the Flat Belly Diet is designed to help you reduce levels of dangerous belly fat, you can follow it even if you don’t need to lose pounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment