“Apple-shaped” body is a term often used to define someone that stores fat around their waist as opposed to a “pear-shaped” body that stores fat on hips, buttocks and thighs.

Love Handles –

We often poke fun at apple shaped individuals, even comically naming their excessive, mid-section fat as potbelly, love handles, spare tire, middle-age spread and the ever-popular beer belly.

Although Doctors have known for a long time that apple-shaped individuals were at higher risk for chronic medical conditions, they could not define why. Not at least, until the advent of medical imaging devices allowed scientists to peer directly into the body for a detailed look at every section of tissue. This gave them a clearer picture of belly fat and its behaviour regarding hormone balance and its effects on our overall health.

The reality is belly fat is anything but funny and we must not underestimate its potential to cause bodily harm.

Subcutaneous Fat or Visceral Fat –

Unlike its counterpart, subcutaneous fat (associated with our buttocks, hips, thighs and back of arms) that gets stored just below the skin, belly fat, or visceral fat resides inside the body, underneath our muscles. It is a hidden, not easily seen fat that dangerously wraps around vital organs like the heart.

Sometimes called “active fat” due to the increased risk for serious health issues it carries with it, visceral fat hangs over our beltline distorting and spoiling our physical appearance. This image negatively affects us emotionally and mentally every time we look in the mirror. But that’s not the worst of it. What it does inside is far worse. It has been linked with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke and even cancer. Furthermore, it poisons and sets us up for a chronic condition known as metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic Syndrome  –

Metabolic syndrome causes hormones, blood sugars and fats to become unbalanced, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke and other serious diseases.

This condition gets worse with age, affecting more than 40% of adults in their 60-70s. And according to a national health survey, an excess of 1 in 5 Americans live with it.

Lack of physical activity and excess weight are both heavy contributors to the development of metabolic syndrome and destroying belly fat begins with understanding that the human body is not designed to be overweight or over fat.

Omentum –

This brings us to an unappreciated organ, the omentum, responsible for those “love handles” we like poking fun at. Also called the “lace apron” because it hangs like a webbed apron inside the abdomen, it serves as a protective cushion, responsible for storing fat.

A lean person with a high ratio of muscle to fat, will have a thin omentum. However, as the body becomes overweight and globules of fat fill the spaces of this internal webbed organ, it grows, oftentimes way too much.

An excessively large omentum, clogged with fat, is a ticking timebomb, releasing dangerous inflammatory chemicals into the bloodstream that harm both organs and tissues. These chemicals actively disrupt the body’s metabolism and promote inflammation, setting the stage for killer diseases to take hold. To compound these health issues, research also reveals that an extra-large belly ages victims at a premature, accelerated rate.

Experts agree that staying within a waist measurement of 32 inches for women and 35 inches for men is the surest way to avoid harmful conditions. However, measuring the size of our omentum is not a practical solution as it must be done with an expensive CT scan. Therefore, we must rely on the evidence that our body shape provides (the actual size of our mid-section). As an example, apple shaped people with a protruding tummy that feels firm to the touch, are likely storing too much fat in the omentum.

A waist measurement of 35 for women and 40 for men is reason to take note. This increased measurement causes mischief within the body that releases inflammatory chemicals that irritate blood vessels. This irritation leads to tissue damage, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries while stimulating high levels of bad cholesterol. All conditions that can lead to life-threatening diseases.

Overeating, eating the wrong foods, and lack of exercise are not the only issues promoting belly fat.

Stress is also a contributing factor. When stress hormones like cortisol are released into the bloodstream, our internal fat storage gets stimulated to store more fat, increasingly growing the mid-section. This further increases stress levels and before you know it, we’re captured on a merry-go-round of “stress into fat” response. This may have worked well for our ancient ancestors that relied on stored fat at times. However, the stresses that most of us deal with today are not tied into food shortages.

The good news is the omentum and fat weight wrapped around internal organs like the heart, liver and kidneys shrinks when we lose some fat weight.

That means we are empowered to change the shape and health of our body through lifestyle habits.

When we reduce body fat, we reduce the total amount of inflammatory chemicals deposited into the body. This in turn, leads to a reduction of stress-inducing hormones, some of the culprits causing the body to gain fat weight in the first place.

Adopting healthy eating habits, those that focus on nutrients, not calories is an important part of belly fat destruction. Processed foods, sugar and starch should be limited or eliminated with quality protein, complex carbs and healthy fats in their place.

Physical training emphasis should be on short periods of high intensity workouts rather than long hours of low intensity. A proper strength training program, one that directly targets, stimulates, rebuilds and strengthens muscle tissue, while boosting metabolic rate fits the bill perfectly.

It is both encouraging and motivating to know that reducing all over body fat percentage through strength training, stress reduction and healthy eating not only makes a difference in the size of our omentum but offers compounding positive health benefits of increased metabolism, lowered blood pressure, lowered blood sugars and fats and balanced hormones. It’s a good thing!

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