Posted on 01/12/2009 9:06:57 PM PST by Coleus
This is just what you need, in the aftermath of pumpkin pie and holiday parties: gross-out science about deep belly fat. In the annals of exercise research, increasingly the answer is "brisk walking." What's the question? Most people think it has to do with exercising the heart or getting rid of love handles and saddlebags. But scientists are finding it's about belly fat, also known as visceral fat, the interior kind that's snug up against your internal organs.
Yeah, yuck. Put a glob of abdominal fat and a glob of thigh fat in a petri dish, add a little stimulation, and the two behave quite differently, said Tim Church, director of preventive medicine research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. "The belly fat produces three times the bad chemicals," Church said. "And it's kicking the liver right in the teeth."
That visceral fat is a bad operator, said David Robbins, endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "We're beginning to understand that this central fat may be the primary villain in the production of diabetes and heart disease in adults," Robbins said. "Fat in the abdomen is metabolically very active. It secretes fatty acids and 55 different hormones." Maybe a mice study from earlier this year will help elucidate.
A University of Michigan research team transplanted visceral fat in one group of mice and subcutaneous fat, the kind just under the skin, in another. In terms of promoting dangerous inflammation and encouraging atherosclerosis, the belly fat was the big winner. And this is where recent research about exercise and belly fat comes in.
A study reported this fall from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle followed about 100 men and 100 women for a year. They were encouraged to increase their physical activity six days a week. They weren't given a diet plan. Women who increased their activity by 3,500 steps a day lost five pounds. Men doing the same lost 8 1/2 pounds. Participants who exercised the most decreased their belly fat by 10 percent to 20 percent.
The study points up the good news, Robbins said. Some people aware of the dangers of belly fat think it's highly resistant to exercise. But visceral fat is actually quite sensitive to exercise and calorie reduction. "That's where you're most likely to lose the weight," he said. "These fat cells shut off very quickly." People look at ideal weight charts, figure they're never going to get there and give up, Robbins said. Or they notice that their fatty folds of skin don't seem to shed readily as they exercise and cut calories.
But even a small weight loss shuts down some very dangerous signals from belly fat cells, the kind that put people at risk of disease, Robbins said. "So even losing five to 10 pounds can have a disproportionate benefit to your health," he said. How do you know it's in there, this visceral fat?
Various types of imaging scans would reveal it, but they're not necessary. Basically, abdominal fat takes up space and pushes out, increasing your waist size. "It's not what you weigh, it's where you weigh," Church said.
He said it's worth noting that some people who aren't particularly overweight may have a false sense of security. Skinny arms and legs and loss of muscle can help keep your weight down, but if the stomach is growing, the danger is there.
That’s because if a fat person tried to jog, he’d be laid up for a week.
Interval training is also a proof positive exercise strategy to lose that much more fat when one is jogging, cycling, etc. Of course one has to change their eating a bit if they want to lose and keep off the belly fat. One cool thing about interval training is it is harder while one is doing it but one doesn’t have to do 40-60 minute cardio to dump the fat and get the aerobic benefits.
—bflr—
Lol! That’s what I was thinking.
Cindy Sheehan being arrested at a recent
"anti-war" rally
Revolution interview with ("Peace Mom") Cindy Sheehan: October 29, 2005:
['Revolution' is the official newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Party]
http://rwor.org/a/021/cindy-sheehan-interview.htm
Any specific type of interval training that you can share?
i know people who have been walking for years and are still fat.
Brisk walking? Pbbbththhttt. I’ve been “brisk walking” since my twins were born, and the post-twins belly fat is still there! Grr. My blood pressure has gone down, though. (Can’t seem to be successful running... every time I try, I injure my ankle or foot or knee or some darned thing.)
That's because it takes most of an hour of brisk walking before the walker gets his heart rate up to an effective level, and within an hour most walkers have stopped and are back inside. The walker gets his leg muscles toned, but that's about it. The jogger or runner, however, gets his heart rate up within a block and keeps it up.
I can't run for a long time, so I walk, and I keep my weight down, by starting my walks with a jog of two blocks. Then my heart rate is up, and I can drop back to walking as fast as my dogs will drag me along. When my heart rate slacks off a little I jog a short distance to get it back up. I am skinny.
--off to go for my run/walk in the darkness.
I suggest people read a book by Dr. Maffetone. His premise seems to be that if you don’t get your heart rate high enough during a workout you are not burning fat efficiently (aerobic). If you get your heart rate too high then you are burning sugars (anaerobic).
Enjoy it.
After my wife had our girls, I just think of her as a cushy-Cadillac, instead of a stipper model. :)
Ranger is right. It’s odd, but I have more fellows claiming to be smitten with me after five children and many dress sizes later than I ever did at size 3. I would like to get down to a reasonable size 8, but having talked to a number of fellows they say they much smaller than that is too thin.
From what I have heard, the manufacturers have allegedly changed dress sizes to “make women feel better”. A size 12 then would be a size 6 now. Even as opposed to about 20 years ago. If I were that size now, my size 3 would be a 0. A lady who was helping me make a pattern said she found some of her mother’s old patterns for size 8-10. The bust size was 32. My friend said, “That’s my waist size” (yet, my friend looks incredibly skinny.
“love handles and saddlebags”
Around here these are called “power packs”.
At 45 and after this Christmas; I am fully charged!
I swim about 35 miles every summer and this tends to burn them up. I’ve been blessed with good health and the wits to know when to start burning belly fat.
Swimming is great because there is minimal impact, though I admit with each passing year that I can hear more and more stuff rattling around in my shoulders and knees.
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