This Fat is Literally Killing You!

In this podcast episode we are diving into the topic of visceral fat—its physiology, its profound health impacts, and ways to manage it. 

In this episode you will learn about:

🌟The differences between visceral and subcutaneous fat

🌟The biochemical dangers of visceral fat

🌟Actionable steps to reduce this fat.

Featuring expert insights from Dr. Davis Garth, this episode provides essential knowledge for anyone concerned about hidden body fat and its serious health risks.

00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome

00:34 Personal Update and Episode Introduction

01:20 Understanding Visceral Fat

02:43 The Dangers of Visceral Fat

10:48 Causes and Detection of Visceral Fat

13:55 Tips to Reduce Visceral Fat

18:12 Conclusion and Farewell

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Transcript

 Welcome to the Nine to Five Wellness Podcast, a show about corporate wellness solutions with innovators and forward-thinking leaders who are at the forefront of the workplace wellness movement. I'm your host, Aisha Tahir.

 Hello friends, how are you guys? Happy Labor Day weekend if you are in the US because it's a long weekend over here. I'm recording this episode on Sunday, August 31st. I had an amazing run this morning. The. Weather over here in Bucks County is just beautiful. I just can't tell you how pretty it is. The sun is out, the humidity is low, and the temps are in high seventies, so you can't beat, weather like this.

So I've been enjoying this weekend and now I'm sitting here, recording this podcast episode. Welcome back to the Nine to five Wellness Podcast, episode number 92. Can you believe it? I am just super stoked, super happy about it.

Today, I wanna delve into a topic that many of us might not even be aware of, but it can have profound impact on our health, and it's a certain type of fat that we carry in our body. And I'm gonna go deep into that soon. . I wanna tell you how I came upon this idea of this podcast episode.

I saw a patient this week who had very high visceral fat, but if you looked at him, and when I looked at him, his physical profile was like of a healthy person. Like he looked skinny, and I called these type of patients skinny fat. And as I was discussing his results with him, he said. I didn't know that there is such a thing as visceral fat, so I was like, I have to do an episode on visceral fat.

I know we did an earlier podcast episode on this topic to episode number 27 called Targeting Visceral Fat, so check that out. But in this episode, I'm taking a deep dive into how this fat is harmful. So we are gonna talk about the physiology of this fat and how it impacts our health, and then I will give you some tips on how to get rid of it.

So I want to start with the fact that visceral fat is the most dangerous fat in your body. It's not the fat that you can pinch, and as a matter of fact, you can't see it at all. So it's invisible in most people, but just like for my patient, it's quietly putting your health at serious risk. It's called.

Visceral fat because of the padding around the viscera, which are the internal organs, like your stomach and your intestines. This fat also goes by the name of abdominal obesity. You might have heard that word being thrown around a lot in medical field and abdominal obesity as you can think of it, it is excess weight that develops over time around the center of the body. Visceral fat is the type of body fat stored deep inside the abdominal cavity, and it is surrounding your internal organs like your liver, your stomach and your intestines and too much of it can be very harmful.

In comparison, the other kind of fat that we carry in our body is called subcutaneous fat, which sits below your skin in most of your body, and this is the kind of fat that you can pinch with your fingers, subcutaneous fat provides padding around the sides, glutes, thighs, or upper arms, and it may look cosmetically unpleasing, but it's actually fairly harmless.

And this reminds me of something my friend often says to me that she has a lot of padding around her glue and thighs, and if she ever fell down, nothing would happen to her. She wouldn't break anything because she has so much subcutaneous fat.

That's funny. I think. But the good news is if you're like my friend, you are a healthy person. Healthy people store most of their fat, somewhere around 80% of it in the subcutaneous regions because that's where it's most useful to your body. There the fat protects your muscles and bones from impact, gives you energy, helps your body in temperature regulation, and it also has a very important function of attaching the middle layer of your skin, the dermis. To your muscles and bones with the help of a connective tissue. Visceral fat, on the other hand, isn't nearly as useful because it releases harmful chemicals.

Visceral fat on the other hand, isn't nearly as useful because it releases harmful chemicals. I want to underscore this here. Fat tissue is a tissue that's alive. It's not just a thing sitting in your body. It interacts with the rest of the systems in your body by releasing hormones and inflammatory proteins, and that's why it's called active fat.

Visceral fat wraps itself around your organs deep inside your abdomen, and it's harmful when it breaks down. So when the visceral fat breaks down, which is called the process of lipolysis, so lipolysis is a breaking down of any fat. But in case of visceral fat, it is the breakdown of stored triglycerides in visceral fat cells. When they break down, they change into free fatty acids and glycerol. Since visceral fat is located around internal organs, the free fatty acids it releases go directly into the portal vein and portal vein is pouring into your liver, so that means that those free fatty acids go into your liver. The fancy term for it is hepatic free fatty acids.

Now, I don't know why would anybody want more free fatty acids in their liver. Your liver is responsible for metabolizing all the food at the end of the day when you're sleeping. Why would you want, , more free fatty acids there? I mean, that is. Probably one of the most harmful things you can do to your body.

So increased free fatty acid exposure and high systemic free fatty acid concentrations due to. Excess visceral fat impairs insulin's ability to suppress glucose production by the liver, and it reduces glucose uptake in muscles, which leads to insulin resistance. And you want your cells to be more insulin sensitive.

So this leads to. Insulin resistant cells, and that's a precursor for type two diabetes. That's how it contributes to metabolic dysfunction and can raise your risk for heart disease, stroke type two diabetes, high blood pressure, and even certain cancers. And the scariest part is, you know what? That many people have no idea it's there until it's too late.

As I was doing some research for this episode, I came across this article in which a gastric surgeon, Dr. Davis Garth at Houston Methodist has weighed in on this topic and what he said in that article was golden, and I'm gonna quote him here and here is what he said.

The heavier you are, the fuller, the standard areas to store fat become, meaning that the fat ends up being deposited around your abdominal organs and your heart. And when he takes these patients for surgery, for these patients, there's a very short distance from the skin to the belly, but then the belly is just filled with fat. Fat in the liver, fat lining the intestines, fat everywhere. I can't even imagine looking at something like that. And remember that this fat is biologically active, essentially an endocrine organ that secretes hormones and other chemicals linked to chronic diseases. Among those chemicals are cytokines that boost the likelihood of heart disease and make the body less sensitive to insulin, which can bring on diabetes as we talked earlier . They also produce a precursor to angiotensin , a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise.

That's not all. In the large study of California teachers, women with high levels of visceral fat, were 37% more likely to develop asthma than women with lower levels of visceral fat. That's because visceral fats, inflammatory effects also reach the airways.

So now chew on that and. That should be alarming for everyone who's listening to this podcast. Visceral Fat also has been linked to colorectal and breast cancer. A Korean study found that the chances of getting colorectal cancer nearly doubled among postmenopausal women , who accumulated visceral fat, and it impacts our memory too.

Another California study found that people in their early forties with the highest levels of visceral fat were three times more likely to develop dementia later in their life. So I hope I've made the case for visceral fat. Let's talk about what causes visceral fat, both your genetics and environmental factors can.

Affect your body's relationship with fat. Genetics determine your body shape and how you store fat. While environmental factors like your diet, exercise routine and the amount of stress you're dealing with can affect the kinds of fat you collect. For example, if you consume a lot of fat and carb rich food and you're not moving very often, you're more likely to increase your chances of accumulating visceral fat. And if you're a seriously stressed out person, you may be producing more cortisol, A stress hormone that research suggests stimulates the accumulation of visceral fat.

So how can you tell how much visceral fat you have? Now, that's a tricky question because it's easier to see subcutaneous fat because it's just located below the skin, often in your hips, butt, belly, and thigh area. But to understand the amount of visceral. You need to go through detailed testing, which might not be realistic for everyone. One of the easier ways to measure visceral fat or to know if you carry visceral fat is to measure your waist circumference and compare the circumference of the waist to the circumference of the hips.

So we call that the waist to hip ratio, but that's not. Always relevant. The way it works is by looking at your body shape. People with a pair shape, which means bigger hips and thighs tend to have more subcutaneous fat than those with apple shape who have. Wider waistlines, so that means that they have high visceral fat. A waist circumference of more than 35 inches in women and more than 40 inches in men indicates an unhealthy amount of visceral fat.

If your overall body size is large, those measurements might not be meaningful though, so that's why it's not always a very reliable way to measure visceral fat, but it is a good starting point another way to understand if you have visceral fat is to get your fasting labs done and check your blood pressure, and if. Your labs are off, like your cholesterol is coming high and you are pre-diabetic, or your blood pressure is high, then those are signs of excessive visceral fat. More precise methods rely on abdominal imaging techniques.

Including CT scans, MRIs, and DEXA scan. I like DEXA the best because it's accessible. Other imaging techniques are expensive and they aren't just commonly used to look at visceral fat. So now let's talk about how can you get rid of visceral. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to specifically target and remove visceral fat, but there are tips for dealing with body fat in general, which can help you stay healthy and they will help you lower amounts of visceral fat.

First up, eat a healthy and balanced diet. Don't underestimate the importance of what you put in your body. You are what you eat, and that statement just holds true. Decreasing your intake of saturated fat and processed foods while increasing consumption of fiber containing fruits and vegetables and lean protein is the first step towards reducing visceral fat, and it's one of the greatest things you can do for your health.

So make sure that you change your diet because you are what you eat. Let's talk about exercise. In terms of exercise, I would like to see you perform zone two or steady stage cardio workouts at least twice a week. Zone two training metabolizes or in simple terms, burns fat and it does so efficiently by training your body to use fat as a primary fuel source.

This is because low to moderate intensity exercise in which your heart rate is staying in the green zone. You can measure your heart rate zones by the Formula two 20 minus your age, and then that is 60 to 70% of your maximum heart rate is where you want to stay in your zone two or steady stage cardio workouts.

What happens when you stay at this intensity is that it stimulates growth in your cells, energy producing mitochondria, improving your overall metabolic health and endurance. Zone two training helps increase your body's capacity to oxidize fat, which supports sustainable fat loss and better blood sugar regulation and greater metabolic flexibility. Frequent mild to moderate exercise. For example, 30 to 40 minutes of brisk walking or jogging or running or maybe swimming.

If you are into swimming three to four times a week has been shown to effectively reduce total body fat. In research literature also shows that visceral fat may metabolize quicker than subcutaneous fat. So if you do zone two workouts, that means that you will be shaving off visceral fat first and then subcutaneous fat, which means that your body can get rid of it efficiently through sweating. That's good news. That's very good news, and you don't have to work super, super hard.

It's like easy, mild to moderate activity that can get you there. So now if you have your diet and exercise under control, the next step should be your sleep. Make sure, make sure you're getting enough Zs. I'm talking about seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep at night. And for that you have to practice good sleep hygiene, which means avoiding screen time two hours before bed and getting to sleep at a reasonable time.

And the last thing that I want you to try is. Saying no to stress, and I know it is so hard because I've been going through such a stressful period in my life at this time, and as many techniques as I have under my belt. Sometimes they don't work. But you can only try, right?

You can try. So what. I've been trying is to hang out with friends, and talk to my family regularly. Relax in nature. You know, it that I like. Running. Running has helped me a lot with it and meditate and exercise. Stress activates the hormone cortisol, which signals to your body to hold on to excess fat in form of belly fat.

So that's why it's important. To reduce stress.

So these are the main factors related to visceral fat that I wanted to talk to you about today, and I know it's impossible to target. Visceral fat when you start a program to become healthier. But a reduction in weight in general will shrink your waistline, and most importantly, help reduce visceral fat.

So try to take small steps towards more movement, better sleep, and less stress to be free from visceral fat. It was so nice chatting with you guys. Love you guys so much. Hugs and kisses. Till next episode.

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