Hidden Fat Presents Visible Danger
Exercise Excises Fat Around Internal Organs
UPDATED: 9:20 am CDT September 8, 2003
CHICAGO -- Every day, millions of people in the United States climb stairs and run on treadmills to literally work their butts off.While they're working to deflate that spare tire around the waist, they're also getting rid of a much more insidious class of fat.
It's called visceral fat, which doctors now believe is more dangerous than the fat in people's skin."Think of the visceral fat as a big kind of oil sludge that is sitting there feeding into the liver, and then the liver produces too much cholesterol, too much glucose and too much factors that cause inflammation," said Kerry Stewart (pictured, right), of Johns Hopkins Medical School.
Visceral fat sticks to internal organs, not to the skin. Specialists say it's the type of fat that leads to many obesity-related diseases, such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic syndromes."It's associated with elevations in blood pressure; it's associated with diabetes; and it's associated with cholesterol abnormalities," said Dr. Tim Church, medical director of the Cooper Institute, a Dallas research center on exercise and health funded by the National Institutes of Health.The most dangerous hidden fat is tucked away in the abdomen. Women have it if their waist measures over 35 inches. Men if their waist exceeds 40 inches. The good news is that exercise works better getting rid of visceral fat than the subcutaneous -- or skin -- fat."Interestingly, the visceral fat appears to disappear with a little bit of exercise, while the subcutaneous fat [is] a little bit more stubborn and likes to stick around," Church said.People who lose visceral fat, but not skin fat, will notice a thinner waist size before they see a decline in their overall weight. The best diet to fight visceral fat is one that is low in saturated fats.And exercise is crucial -- a study released by Duke University in May found that visceral fat rapidly accumulated in people who didn't exercise -- especially women.Therese Leroy is a believer. She works out for 40 minutes, three times a week."I knew that it was working, because I've been able to get into clothes that hadn't fit before," she said.
It's called visceral fat, which doctors now believe is more dangerous than the fat in people's skin."Think of the visceral fat as a big kind of oil sludge that is sitting there feeding into the liver, and then the liver produces too much cholesterol, too much glucose and too much factors that cause inflammation," said Kerry Stewart (pictured, right), of Johns Hopkins Medical School.
Visceral fat sticks to internal organs, not to the skin. Specialists say it's the type of fat that leads to many obesity-related diseases, such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic syndromes."It's associated with elevations in blood pressure; it's associated with diabetes; and it's associated with cholesterol abnormalities," said Dr. Tim Church, medical director of the Cooper Institute, a Dallas research center on exercise and health funded by the National Institutes of Health.The most dangerous hidden fat is tucked away in the abdomen. Women have it if their waist measures over 35 inches. Men if their waist exceeds 40 inches. The good news is that exercise works better getting rid of visceral fat than the subcutaneous -- or skin -- fat."Interestingly, the visceral fat appears to disappear with a little bit of exercise, while the subcutaneous fat [is] a little bit more stubborn and likes to stick around," Church said.People who lose visceral fat, but not skin fat, will notice a thinner waist size before they see a decline in their overall weight. The best diet to fight visceral fat is one that is low in saturated fats.And exercise is crucial -- a study released by Duke University in May found that visceral fat rapidly accumulated in people who didn't exercise -- especially women.Therese Leroy is a believer. She works out for 40 minutes, three times a week."I knew that it was working, because I've been able to get into clothes that hadn't fit before," she said. Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
