Body fat, the enemy of so many women, becomes an even more formidable opponent as the years pass. Understand why you need to fight its effects, be aware of its sneaky ways and be ready to fight proactively on a daily basis. It’s time for all out war!
First, know that body fat, or adipose tissue, isn’t inherently evil. Its primary function is to store fat derived from the food we eat as an energy reserve. It also acts as insulation, protecting our bodies from extreme temperatures. Thus, we all need some body fat. It’s when we accumulate too much adipose tissue that unhealthy side effects—not to mention unsightly bulges—begin to show up.
Genetics and hormones govern your body fat deposits. Genes help determine the number of total fat cells you have and where these cells are located. For most women in their childbearing years, estrogen directs the majority of body fat to show up on the hips, butt and thighs. This type of adipose tissue is known as “subcutaneous fat,” or fat that lies under the skin.
For cosmetic procedure fans, subcutaneous fat is also the kind of fat that can be banished with liposuction. The procedure actually removes the fat cells completely, which can be a very attractive notion if you have extra troublesome areas like saddlebags or fat inner knees.
According to experts at Harvard Medical School, as you approach menopause your estrogen levels decrease and the ratio of male hormones in your body increases. Studies have shown that this change influences the buildup of fat that’s a much greater risk to your health: visceral fat. Also called abdominal fat and belly fat, visceral fat lives inside the abdominal cavity, surrounding and even invading vital organs. Visceral fat can contribute to several life-threatening conditions including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke.
Visceral fat is a dangerous foe in another way too: it’s not necessarily easy to spot. Those with the classic “beer belly,” a tummy that’s rounded and firm, almost certainly have significant visceral fat. Visceral fat can hide in your abdomen even if you’re at or near your normal weight and it can’t be liposuctioned away.
So who's at risk for this stealth visceral fat? People who are sedentary. Professor Jimmy Bell, a researcher at Imperial College in the U.K, tells of performing MRI scans on underweight people who prove to have several liters of abdominal fat. Because the fat these people have is on the inside, surrounding their organs, they face related health issues even though their Body Mass Index (BMI) suggests otherwise. Bell finds that “men who have a slim build but do little to no exercise” are particularly at risk of a variety of health problems.
Bell cautions people with visceral fat that crash dieting is not the solution. In fact, he suggests, repeated dieting may cause fat to become more concentrated in the abdomen, as subcutaneous fat is lost first from the top and bottom of the body first. He believes that off and on dieting can actually make the problem worse.
The right battle strategy? You guessed it: exercise. A program of frequent, regular activity that raises your pulse will help you keep visceral fat at bay. Get a little more aggressive and you can actually burn some of that fat away.
In case you need a little extra motivation to engage in the fight, consider this. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center studied a group of people for eight months in the mid 2000’s. They found that those who did not exercise during that time suffered an increase in visceral fat of 8.6 percent. That’s more than one percent per month.
You won’t win the war against fat that way.