The Dangers of Belly Fat

Maintaining a trim mid-section does more than make you look great. It can help you live longer. It is impossible to target belly fat specifically. But losing weight overall will help shrink your waistline; more importantly, it will help reduce the dangerous layer of visceral fat. Visceral fat that accumulates around the abdominal organs is metabolically active and has been strongly linked to a host of serious risks, including heart disease, cancer and dementia. Kerry J. Stewart, Ed.D.

In 2007 the Journal of Circulation published a review where they looked at the primary risk factors for cardiac mortality. They found that #1 killer of women in the Western world was abdominal obesity or belly fat. The Million Women Study conducted in Britain demonstrated a direct link between the development of coronary heart disease and an increase in waist circumference over a 20-year period. Even when other coronary risk factors were taken into account, the chances of developing heart disease were doubled among women with the largest waists.

Among other medical problems linked to belly fat are insulin resistance and the risk of Type 2 Diabetes, compromised lung function and migraine headaches. Even asthma risk is enhanced by being overweight, and especially by abdominal obesity. Obesity or belly fat was a far higher risk factor that actually smoking or heart attack.

If you do nothing else today to protect your health, consider taking an honest measurement of your waist. Stand up straight, exhale, (no sucking in the gut) and with a soft tape measure record your girth an inch or two above your hip bones.

The result has far greater implications than any other concerns you might have about how you look or how your clothes fit. In general, if your waist measures 35 or more inches for women or 40 or more inches for men, chances are you are hiding a potentially dangerous amount of abdominal fat.