The Perils of Belly Fat Explained

An interesting article was just published on the Mayo Clinic website about why it’s so important to control the amount of excess abdominal fat that women (more than men) experience with age.   The authors explain that “it’s not just the stuff out front that you can grab with your hand – but it’s the deeper fat you can’t see that’s really a cause for concern.”

 Visceral fat, they explain, lies deeper inside the abdomen, surrounding the abdominal organs, and it has been linked to a number of health problems such as:

• heart disease

• breast cancer

• diabetes

• metabolic syndrome

• gallbladder problems

• high blood pressure

• coloretal cancer

The good news is that visceral fat responds well to a healthy diet and exercises that target the abdominal muscles.  So if you’re getting thicker in the middle even without weight gain (a waist measurement of 35 inches or more is an unhealthy concentration of abdominal fat, according to the Mayo Clinic)  dust off your old  ”Abs of Steel” tapes and start exercising.

By the way, a second article on the Mayo Clinic website does a good job explaining the causes of middle age weight gain and what you can do to prevent or reverse it.