Pro Tips

Each issue of the Well Newsletter will feature one or more articles from health care professionals. Our contributing writers will be medical doctors, PhD's (or PhD students) and fitness trainers who will tackle issues that are important to your health and wellness.

Hidden Obesity?

 by Caitlin Mason

By now, most of us have heard that not all of the fats we eat are created equal. The so-called "good fats" – the polyunsaturated variety that are plentiful in fatty fish, many types of nuts, and olive oil for example, are important for healthy body functioning and should be differentiated from "bad fats" – the trans and saturated kind that should be consumed in moderation. The ability to differentiate these two varieties has important health implications.

Likewise, the fat we store on our body also comes in two varieties. Subcutaneous fat is the type we are most familiar with; the noticeable layer of fat that lies just below the skin. On the other hand, visceral or intra-abdominal fat, is found predominantly around vital organs, deep in the abdomen and cannot be seen or measured without sophisticated (and costly) techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans.

Although we give the subcutaneous type most of our attention, it's in fact the fat you can't see that's really worrisome. Although high amounts of subcutaneous fat can have negative health consequences, visceral fat is strongly related to health problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even certain types of cancer. Because of where it is located, visceral fat is thought to make its neighbouring organs (especially the liver) work overtime by metabolizing more fat. Visceral fat cells may also be responsible for producing hormones and other substances that are involved in the development of several diseases.

Can someone have too much visceral fat without being overweight?

Generally speaking, the two types of fat are related. Someone with excess subcutaneous fat is more likely to also have high amounts of visceral fat. However, some individuals are more prone to accumulating dangerous amounts of visceral fat, regardless of their overall weight. Unfortunately, age and hormonal changes (i.e. menopause) are associated with increasing amounts of visceral fat. Even without gaining weight, we become more susceptible to storing fat in the abdomen which partly explains why our risk of heart disease and diabetes also increases as we get older.

"Don't step on it... it makes you cry."

How can you tell how much visceral fat you have?

Stepping on a scale doesn't give any indication of where fat is stored in the body. Instead, the easiest and most practical way to estimate how much visceral fat you are carrying is to check your waistline by measuring your waist circumference. Measuring around your mid-section gives a good estimate of how much visceral fat is likely accumulated inside your abdomen. Many doctors are now suggesting that waist circumference should be considered a new "vital sign" during routine clinic visits – a measurement that is just as important as checking your blood pressure, heart rate and lung function!

The following cutoff points are used to identify men and women with an unhealthy concentration of abdominal fat and a higher risk of obesity-related diseases, regardless of what the scale says.

Getting Rid of Visceral Fat

Many people feel discouraged when efforts to improve their diet and become more active don't pay off with big changes on the scale. But, what if you lost inches instead of pounds? Would this still be considered success?

Research shows that people whose diets contain polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats have less visceral fat. Also, adopting a physically active lifestyle-doing things such as walking or cycling on most days of the week will help prevent visceral fat from accumulating. The best news? Regular moderate-to-vigorous exercise can actually preferentially reduce the amount of visceral fat you already have. This means that by getting active you will see improvements around your waist even if changes on the scale are slower to come. Shedding even a couple of inches will not only make your pants fit better but will result in a wide variety of health benefits...Try it!

Caitlin Mason is a PhD candidate in the School of Kinesiology & Health Studies at Queen's University, conducting research in the area of physical activity and obesity epidemiology. Caitlin is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is currently working on a series of projects that aim to improve the clinical assessment of obesity-related health risk.

How Poor Food Choices Increase Belly Fat

 by Rosemary Quinn

Food is a very important part of the biological growth process. Due to the current super-fast and hectic lifestyle, people's eating habits and, therefore, the desired effect of food has been compromised. This type of lifestyle is taking a huge toll on people's health and, unfortunately, most do not realize it until it is too late. Work, home, and social pressures all combine to make healthy eating habits seem difficult and that roll of fat around the stomach is proof of it.

Besides looking unsightly, fat on the abdomen is an indicator of a host of diseases that may be deadly to one's health. Nature designed the human body so that it would store fat as energy reserves. Combine increased inactivity, poor dietary habits and stress and one realizes a new medical term known as Metabolic Syndrome.

How does this dangerous belly fat come about?

1. Poor food increases belly fat due to its poor quality and the fact that it is high in calories. High caloric foods stimulate the increase in size of fat cells as well as creating new fat cells. A diet that is high in sodium, fat and sugar also adds to abdominal fat. People, now so pressed for time, take shortcuts in their meal preparation and substitute old-style home cooking with ready-to-eat packaged food. Fast food is poor food, no matter what the companies do to advertise their products as healthy. Junk food contains high levels of fat, sugar and salt. Both of these food types (fast and junk) are popular because they are easy to buy, need no preparation and are convenient to eat. They also increase the waistline.
   
   Studies have shown how low quality-high calorie food increases belly fat, in part, because eating less fibre results in poor elimination which in turn, causes bloating and distension of the stomach. A person will not be able to get rid of that belly fat without taking a careful look of what is being eaten. The stomach cannot be treated as a trashcan, and not dumping large distorted portion sizes of nutrition-deficient food into it is the first step toward better health.
   
   
2. People do not physically work or exercise as hard as our ancestors did. Exercise seems to be the first thing that is eliminated from the daily routine when people get busy. All people need to make exercise a daily habit, just like brushing one's teeth. Many people make the mistake of dieting very rigorously (but don't include exercising) in the hope that they will slim down. Unfortunately, this makes the body go into the 'starvation mode', which decreases metabolism and causes an increase in the size of fat cells.
   
   
3. Stress. The stress hormone called Cortisol (the "fight or flight" hormone) always kicks in during stressful situations. When the body produces excess Cortisol, it tends to cause a build-up of belly fat. It becomes easy to understand then, why bellies begin to bulge when one adds together stress (Cortisol), a sedentary lifestyle, refined and nutrient deficient foods and a glut of excess calories. It is, in a sense, the perfect storm and this mixture results in the storage of visceral fat around the waist.

Belly fat – which refers largely to visceral fat (fat packed in between internal organs), not just the subcutaneous fat (fat below your skin) has been associated in recent years with all kinds of health problems ranging from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure & cholesterol...also known as metabolic syndrome.

Many people are failing to reach their fat reduction goals because they have not considered the possible effect of stress on their weight as well as their health. When one combines calorie restriction from proper nutrition with muscle building exercises, fat burning exercises AND stress relief exercises, one may very well have the most complete approach to a flat stomach that has ever been created.

Rosemary Quinn is one of the owners of Fitness Works Personal Training Ltd..

Professional and knowledgeable, she is an experienced and accredited personal trainer with a background in athletics. She also teaches the Can Fit Pro Pre and Post Natal Certification Course and is a CPAFLA (Canadian Physical Activity, Fitness & Lifestyle Appraisal) Fitness Appraiser and Consultant.

www.fitness-works.com  info@fitness-works.com  250.477.9699