Breaking Down Belly Fat: Why It Is Dangerous and How to Lose It
Did you know that there are actually two different types of fat in your body?
It’s true, and they are called subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. They differ both in where they are located in the body and how they impact it.
A small amount of fat is necessary and even beneficial to certain bodily functions, but too much can lead to adverse health effects like diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease, just to name just a few.
Let’s break down the main differences between subcutaneous fat and visceral fat and discuss why one is much more harmful to your health than the other, as well as go over some tips and tricks for how to lose fat and benefit your health.
Two Types of Fat
When you think about fat, you are probably picturing subcutaneous fat, or they type that you can pinch between your fingers on your belly, thighs, or arms. That’s because this is the most abundant kind of fat, making up 90% of the total fat on your body.
The other 10% of fat is invisible to the naked eye because it is located beneath your abdominal wall, filling in the space around your organs. This is called visceral or intra-abdominal fat and research shows that although it is less plentiful, it has much greater overall effect on your health.
Subcutaneous
Like we mentioned earlier, subcutaneous fat is the fat that is located between your skin and muscle tissues. It feels soft when you press into it with a finger.
Subcutaneous fat does have beneficial functions for the body including insulation, storing energy for your body to use, providing a pathway for blood vessels and nerves, and cushioning the body.
Too much subcutaneous fat can be dangerous, though, leading to obesity related illness like diabetes, heart disease, and even stroke. Being overweight is also hard on your bones and joints, increasing your risk for arthritis, injury, and limiting your mobility.
Visceral
Visceral fat is much less abundant in your body than subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat lies beneath your abdominal wall and surrounds your liver, intestines, and other organs.
Much like subcutaneous fat, a little bit is necessary to protect your organs, but too much can have a negative impact on your health. In fact, it is actually more detrimental to your body than the more plentiful subcutaneous fat.
Unlike previously thought, fat is not just there to store energy from food, but it is actually biologically active, directly interacting with your hormones and organs.
For example, visceral body fat releases fatty acid into your blood stream where it is absorbed by your liver. High amounts of fatty acid in your liver can lead to insulin resistance which is the leading cause for hyperglycemia.
Fatty acid isn’t the only thing that visceral fat produces. It also produces hormones and other byproducts that lead to inflammation in the body, increasing your risk for developing chronic disease.
Fat and Disease
Learning that fat is biologically active has helped researchers to better understand why it has such a significant impact on the body and our health.
What it comes down to is that fat causes inflammation. When your body senses inflammation, the immune system is activated to rid itself of the cause. When inflammation persists over time, the repeated attack by the immune system can cause damage to healthy tissues, organs, and even your DNA.
This damage is what ultimately leads to disease. Visceral fat is associated with a number of chronic diseases in the body. Let’s go over a few of them.
Diabetes
Visceral fat releases fatty acids to the liver, increasing your risk for hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, precursors to type 2 diabetes.
Cardiovascular disease
High visceral fat leads to high blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, and lower levels of HDL, or the good cholesterol. All of these effects increase your risk factor for heart disease. In fact, one study found that the risk for heart disease increases 10% with every 2 inches added to the waistline.
Asthma
The inflammation from visceral fat impacts more organs than just your liver, it can also affect your lungs. One study found that women with a waistline of 35 or more inches were almost 40% more likely to develop asthma.
Cancer
Research has found that higher amounts of visceral fat is linked to cancer, particularly to breast cancer in women and colorectal cancer which is associated with insulin resistance.
Dementia
One Kaiser Permanente study found that people in their early 40s with a higher abdominal fat percentage are three times likelier to develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia by their mid 70s when compared to people with smaller waistlines.
How to lose it
Where you gain fat is largely up to genetics, hormones, age, and your birth weight. As you might imagine, accumulating fat on your belly as opposed to your thighs or arms means that you are more likely to have higher amounts of visceral fat.
Where you gain fat also changes as you age, with women having less visceral fat than men until middle age, when this statistic flips as menopause begins. Additionally, women who have had children are more likely to gain belly fat than those who have not.
You can calculate your visceral fat by taking 10% of your total body fat percentage. You find this using a tape measure, a scale, and this helpful calculator. Keep in mind that these calculators are not completely accurate because body fat is dependent on your sex, age, stature, and more. Use these statistics as an estimate and consult your doctor for a more accurate measurement.
The good news is, because visceral fat is more biologically active, it is metabolized into fatty acids much faster than subcutaneous body fat. Maintaining a healthy weight through diet, exercise, and other lifestyle practices is the best way to reduce and minimize the accumulation of visceral fat.
Diet: maintaining a healthy diet with minimal amounts of foods high in refined carbs such as sugar and white flour will help you to reduce visceral fat.
Exercise: exercises like strength training and cardio help to increase your metabolism and maintain a healthy weight.
Sleep: people who get fewer than five hours per night tend to accumulate more visceral fat than those who sleep the recommended six to eight.
Lower stress: chronic stress causes your body to produce cortisol which can lower your metabolism and cause weight gain.
Quit smoking: studies show that smokers are more likely to store fat on their abdomen as opposed to other areas of the body.
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