Abdominal Obesity

Obesity and being overweight has serious consequences for your health. Obesity is responsible for high levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides. Being overweight lowers HDL or the “good” cholesterol that your body needs. High cholesterol impairs the body’s responsiveness to insulin and raises blood sugar and insulin levels. If you are obese you have a high risk for major diseases, disabilities and even death. Diseases include heart attacks and disease, strokes, cancers, diabetes, fatty liver disease, and possibly mental dysfunction.

The question is not how much your weigh, however, but how much abdominal fat you are carrying. It has also been recognized over the years that what matters is not body weight but body fats. The body mass index or BMI is a good way to diagnose obesity. Although BMI is a good starting place it is more accurate to take into consideration your body build, weight, and activity levels.

Abdominal fat comes in two forms. One is the fatty tissue just underneath the skin or the subcutaneous fat that is unattractive, but no special health threat. Inside abdomen fat is different. This fat is labeled visceral fat, located around the internal organs and is dangerous. Visceral fat is linked to over activity of the body’s stress response system which in turn raises blood and sugar levels. Visceral fat is the major contributor to high cholesterol that infers with heart functions, causes poor circulation and high blood pressure.

Visceral fat cells discharge their metabolic substances directly into the circulation portal system. This system carries blood to the liver and visceral fat cells that are full of triglycerides dispense fatty acids into your liver. These fats also collect in the pancreas, heart and all your other organs. This causes dysfunctions which in turn bring about diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressures and a myriad of other diseases.

To find out your abdomen fat ratios relax your abdomen and calculate your waist at the naval. Then calculate your hips at the bony points. Divide your waist size by your hip size. The chances of suffering heart attacks or strokes increase if your ratios are above .95 for a man .85 for women. This may be a simple test, but it does give you an idea of what you need to do: lose abdomen fat. This may not be the easiest thing to do, but it will save your life.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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