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 How
Deep Is Your Fat?
Auburn,
January 28, 2003 --- All kinds of body fat are bad, but as
studies are showing, some are worse than others.
In
most cases, the fat you see may not be causing you the most
trouble.
“It’s not just a question of having body fat, but where that fat is
located,” says Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension
System nutritionist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and
foods.
“There are lots
of people with excess fat on their arms, legs and buttocks. That’s
bad, but that’s really not the worst place you can have it.”
Even that ugly
bulge around the midsection isn’t the worst, so long as you can
pinch it. But beyond this pinchable fat lies the hidden or
visceral fat, the so-called “intra-abdominal” fat located deep
inside your body and surrounding vital organs, such as the liver and
kidneys.
“This is the
worst place for you to have body fat,” Keith says. “It’s linked
with type II (adult-onset) diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood
pressure and cardiovascular disease.”
It sounds
frightening enough, but the good news is that only small amounts of
daily exercise can reduce this fat as well as the accompanying
health risks.
In a study
involving 173 post-menopausal women between the ages of 50 and 75,
half the participants began a 45-minute daily regimen mostly
involving brisk walking, while the other half followed daily
stretching exercises.
When the study
was concluded, researchers found that the women who undertook
walking and similar daily regimens reduced their levels of
intra-abdominal fat significantly – and with it their health risks.
“The modest
exercise caused only a modest weight loss but a lot of what they
lost came from fat deposit in the abdomen – a loss between 3 ˝ to 7
percent,” Keith says.
Researchers have
found that it isn’t just the calorie-burning associated with the
exercise that may help reduce the fat. Besides burning calories,
the exercise also appeared to produce hormonal changes that
contribute to fat reduction.
“For some
people, a 45-minute daily walking regimen sounds like a lot, but it
really isn’t,” Keith says. “It’s a modest effort that can still
produce a lot of positive changes.”
“If you look at
other studies, you see that more intense exercise will reduce this
abdominal fat even more.”
Even better, he
says, is that all of these studies show it is never too late to
enjoy the health benefits of exercise.
(Source:
Dr. Robert Keith,
Alabama
Cooperative Extension System Nutritionist, 334-844-3273.)
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