Understanding Belly Fat and What to Do About It.

*** Read to the end for a fantastic 20-minute workout that you can do from home as often as needed! ***

 

Eating or consuming food is natural.

Food gives energy, and it is how we can carry out our everyday activities like walking and cooking.

However, there can be extra energy left from the food we eat.

Although a small part is stored as carbohydrates (glycogen) in the muscles and liver, the bulk of the excess energy is stored as fat.

This fat can be stored in different parts of the body: if it is stored in the chest, waist, hips and buttock region, it is called subcutaneous fat; while if it is stored between the internal organs in the abdomen, it is referred to as “visceral fat” or more popularly as “belly fat.”

There are several factors that determine where excess fat is stored in the body, some of which includes heredity and hormones.

Subcutaneous fat has little to no adverse effect on a person’s health and lifespan; belly fat, on the other hand, leads to major implications and is closely related to morbidity and mortality than body weight or body mass index (BMI).

 

Abdominal or central Obesity occurs when there is an excess storage of belly fat.

Abdominal Obesity which is also referred to as “potbelly” or “beer belly” is strongly associated with a lot of illness and diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, abnormal lipids (elevated bad cholesterol and triglycerides), fatty liver, cardiovascular diseases (including heart attacks), stroke, dementia, and cancer.

Abdominal Obesity can be measured manually by measuring the waist circumference or more accurately by x-ray and magnetic imaging (DXA, CT, or MRI).

 

Body weight as a measure of body fat – BMI

BMI (Body Mass Index) is also known as weight/height ratio and is the official standard for measuring total body fat and is widely used by health professionals to advise about the health risks of overweight and Obesity.

However, BMI has several flaws, one of which is that BMI reflects body fat without showing how it is distributed in the body.

For example, an athlete who is fit might have little body fat, but because of he or she is muscular, the BMI would be high which does not truly reflect the amount of excess body fat in the body.

There are people in the normal BMI range with an excess of abdominal fat (aka as TOFI, thin-outside fat-inside), whose health risks are similar to those of obese people.

 

BIA or BMI?

BIA (Body Impedance Analysis) is another method used for estimating body fat.

The principle BIA uses is that since muscle tissue retain lots of water when compared to fat tissues, which contain little water.

So, a person with more muscle than fat will contain more water and will thus be less resistant to electricity as water is a great conductor of electric current.

BIA sends a weak electrical current through the body of the person to measured, and an estimation of the body fat percentage is made based on the body’s resistance to the electric current.

BIA has been integrated into more modern digital scales, which shows a person’s body fat percentage. Some of the more sophisticated scales can even offer a compartmental fat assessment, including visceral and subcutaneous fat percentages.

In summary, reducing belly fat is more important that barely checking body weight, as a person’s weight does not totally show the amount of excess body fat he or she has. It is thus best to calculate the BMI and also measure your body fat separately.

 

How to measure belly fat yourself

The easiest method of measuring belly fat involves simply using a flexible (stretch-resistant) tape measure.

Steps to measure your Waist Circumference (WC)

This technique requires that you measure the circumference of your “tummy” around the widest part of your belly.

The process is as follows:

 

• Step 1: Stand with your arms at the sides, feet positioned close together, and weight evenly distributed across your feet.
• Step 2: Wear little or no clothes so that your measurements are as close to your skin as possible.
• Step 3: Align the tape measure to the level of the belly button and circle the entire route around the body.
• Step 4: The tape measure should be placed gently on the skin and held at a level parallel to the floor.
• Step 5: Relax and avoid contracting any abdominal muscle.
• Step 6: Position the tape measure correctly, breathe in, exhale, and then take the measurement.

 

It is recommended to measure at the midpoint between the lowest rib and the top of the hip bone.

The number that indicates abdominal Obesity for a man and woman is different.

For a man, the ideal size is 37 inches (=94 cm) and below, while a woman is 31.5 inches (=80 cm) and below.

A man with abdominal Obesity will have a waist measurement greater than 40 inches (= 102 cm), while that of a woman is anything greater than 35 inches (= 89 cm).

 

Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR)

Abdominal Obesity can also be measured by comparing the abdominal and buttocks circumference.

To calculate your waist to hip ratio, you’ll start by measuring your abdominal circumference.

Then measure your hips circumference around their widest part. Now divide your waist size by your hip size to get your waist to hip ratio.

Men with WHR above 0.95 are said to have abdominal Obesity or pot belly, while for women, the number is 0.85.

 

How to lose belly fat

Losing weight is the best way to lose belly fat.

However, by going on a low-calorie diet, you cannot determine the exact part of the body the weight loss will occur.

It is thus important to not only diet but also include exercise in your weight loss routine.

Structured exercises like visiting the gym and being physically active are more important than dieting.

Also, a combination of cardio and strength training is the best approach as opposed to specifically exercising the abdominal muscles to reduce fat.

 

Sandy McGrath, Personal Trainer for the National Institute on Aging, produced THIS 20-minute home workout which we feel is a great way to get you up and about each day.

Why not try it for yourself? Click on the video below and get moving!

 

 

We hope these tips provide you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, and want to see more of our articles relating to nutrition and brain healthy foods, check out the links to some of our other articles below:

 

• Healthy Bodies Make Healthy Minds
• How Iron and B Vitamins Improve Brain Activity
• A Daily Nutrition Booster
• The Great Benefits of Yoga

 

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Until next time… Live Strong. Live Well. Live BrainFit.