Obesity
is a serious, chronic, treatable, and global disease epidemic. Over 98 million
people currently have the disease of obesity. In a recent New England
Journal of Medicine article, Harvard researchers predicted that by 2030, 50% of the population in the United
States would have the disease of obesity. No
matter what your body shape, excess fat isn't good for your health. When it comes
to body fat, location counts, and each year brings new evidence that the fat
lying deep within the abdomen is more perilous than the fat you can pinch with
your fingers.
About
90% of body fat is subcutaneous in most people, the kind that lies in a layer
just beneath the skin. If you poke your belly, the fat that feels soft is
subcutaneous fat. The remaining 10% — called visceral or intra-abdominal fat —
lies out of reach beneath the muscular abdominal wall. It's found in the spaces
surrounding the liver, intestines, and other organs. It's also stored in the
omentum, an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and
blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with
fat.
Although
visceral fat makes up only a tiny proportion of body fat, it's a key player in
various health problems.
As
women go through their middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight
tends to increase — more than it does in men — and fat storage begins favoring
the upper body over the hips and thighs. Even if you don't gain weight, your
waistline can grow by inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal
wall.
Visceral
fat lies in the spaces between the abdominal organs and in an apron of tissue
called the omentum. Subcutaneous fat is located between the skin and the outer
abdominal wall.
