NYT: Visceral Fat "Uniquely Vulnerable to Exercise"

Jruzer

Did anyone see this Well Blog posting on "Belly Fat?" (How I hate that term!) Do you have any thoughts?

http://nyti.ms/1FokpGs

Money graf:

The good news about fighting visceral fat is that it seems to be uniquely vulnerable to exercise. “Exercise disproportionately targets visceral fat,” says Gary R. Hunter, a professor of human studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Cutting calories should also reduce visceral flab, he said, but the effects are more substantial and lasting with exercise. In past studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he said, sedentary women who began a yearlong program of moderate exercise twice a week lost about 2 percent of their total body fat, he said. But they lost about 10 percent of their visceral fat.

I don't have a strong opinion but thought this was interesting and relevant.

usmcmp

Reducing visceral fat is great for health purposes, but it still won't do much for belly fat since it's the subcutaneous fat that people hate. Some may find that lower visceral fat reduces belly circumference. Still leaves the fat on top of the abs.

Jruzer

usmcmp wrote: »

Reducing visceral fat is great for health purposes, but it still won't do much for belly fat since it's the subcutaneous fat that people hate. Some may find that lower visceral fat reduces belly circumference. Still leaves the fat on top of the abs.

Honestly that's where I'm confused. I would have thought that's it's mostly subcutaneous myself, but the article also says this:

Belly fat is pernicious. Most of it consists of visceral, or deep, fat, which is physiologically different from subcutaneous fat, the kind that settles just beneath your skin.

usmcmp

Jruzer wrote: »

usmcmp wrote: »

Reducing visceral fat is great for health purposes, but it still won't do much for belly fat since it's the subcutaneous fat that people hate. Some may find that lower visceral fat reduces belly circumference. Still leaves the fat on top of the abs.

Honestly that's where I'm confused. I would have thought that's it's mostly subcutaneous myself, but the article also says this:

Belly fat is pernicious. Most of it consists of visceral, or deep, fat, which is physiologically different from subcutaneous fat, the kind that settles just beneath your skin.

The deep stuff can make our stomach stick out a bit more, but the top stuff will actually look more like jello if you lose the supporting fat under it. There's no real way to determine how much belly fat is visceral or subcutaneous. We all have different proportions of it.

RoxieDawn

The fat in the abdomen is mostly visceral and semi-fluid, in which the abdomen protrudes (excessively).. Men get this in the abdomen and women store it in the butt, thigh and hips and later on in life (during menopause) it migrates to it at some point in the waist...

This makes sense to me as a 46 year old who never worried about fat in the belly area before, why I have it now (and boy is it tough to get rid of)... Thanks to menopause...

crazyjerseygirl

I recall reading the scholarly article (la de da) that this came from. I'll see if I can dug it up.

ETA: found it! http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n4/abs/0803761a.html

TheopolisAmbroiseIII

Sorry to dig up this dead thread, but I had to put in my two cents, since this came up in conversation today.

I'm somewhat unique in how I store fat, at least amongst the people I know, men and women.

I started this weight loss journey at 300lbs, all carried on my 6'6" frame.

I have something like 50-80lbs to lose, but my arms, legs, butt, chest, back, are all lean. I even have a slight ab line down the middle that's visible under the proper lighting.

I carry nearly all of my body fat in my abdomen, and I don't mean a flabby spare tire around my gut. If I flex my core, my abs are firm and you can only pinch an inch or so of sub-q fat, a little more on the love handles.

If I stand straight, and relax, I look like I'm pregnant. It quite literally looks as if I've swallowed a beachball, or stuffed one under my shirt.

I have always been this way, and it's the reason everyone says I "carry weight well" and nobody believes that I was 300lbs. I can recall sucking in my gut and tightening my abs to hide my belly bulge since I was about 11 years old (I'm currently in my late 30s).

I can attest to the fact that if I actually stick to the MFP recommended calories for 2 lbs a week loss, even with only minor activity, recorded by my fitbit, and generally compensated for in how much I eat, I will lose 3-4lbs most weeks.

In that manner, I think that I'm blessed to have primarily this "easy' fat to get rid of. I just wish I could figure out what combination of therapy, medication, life changes, or other realizations I need to get in order to control my constant desire to eat.