Abdominal Fat
Abdominal Fat
I have a friend named Chris who tells me he’s pretty much given up trying to get rid of his middle age spread.
I’m sure many of us can empathize with his frustration. Chris worked hard to get his diet in line, cutting back on calories and avoiding junk food and desserts. He’s also been good about sticking to a daily exercise regimen. But while he’s living healthy, he’s still not losing that persistent abdominal fat.
So for Chris – and all the rest of us who have experienced expansion in the mid region – today we’ll look at two reasons why we shouldn’t give up trying to reduce the waist line, and one nutrient that might help the effort considerably.
Strong links
Heart attack risk is higher for those who are overweight and obese. But a study from the Medical College of Wisconsin indicates that abdominal size may be a greater risk factor than general body weight.
The Wisconsin team collected data on nearly 11,000 subjects who had taken part in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. When body mass index (BMI) was compared to waist circumference in relation to cardiovascular disease risk factors, researchers found the link between waist circumference and elevated blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose to be significantly stronger than the link between those same factors and BMI.
In another study, researchers at Tel-Aviv University in Israel assessed body fat distribution in more than 9,000 male subjects over the age of 40. During a 23-year follow up period, 316 subjects died of stroke. Researchers found that subjects with excessive abdominal fat were found to be one and a half times more likely to suffer a stroke compared to subjects with the lowest abdominal fat.
In an interview with Reuters Health, lead author of the study, David Tanne, M.D., noted that excessive abdominal fat raises the risk of other factors associated with metabolic syndrome, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Protein plus
Heart disease and stroke risk – those are pretty good reasons to redouble efforts to get rid of the gut. So where do we start?
Regular exercise is essential, of course. After that, a higher intake of protein might help.
In a study published last year in the Journal of Nutrition, Canadian researchers recruited more than 600 subjects who completed food frequency questionnaires. They were also measured to assess waist-hip ratio (WHR). Total intake of protein averaged less than 16 percent in subjects with the highest WHR (indicating excessive abdominal fat). Subjects who had the lowest WHR averaged nearly 17.5 percent energy intake from protein.
Why would protein have this effect? A fatty acid called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) might provide the answer.
CLA is most abundant in protein-rich dietary sources such as meat and dairy products. It’s also available in supplement form, and studies have shown that CLA supplements may help reduce body fat mass. In the Healthier Talk community forums, a member named Sunshinemar1 writes about the effects of supplementing with one gram of CLA daily for about a year: “My loss was very slow but I lost inches in the mid section which is the hardest fat to lose. Lost more in inches than in weight loss.”
You can read more about CLA in the e-Alert “Beef ‘n’ Butter” (4/20/04), which you can find at this link:
http://www.hsionline.com/ealerts/ea200404/ea20040420.html
Talk to your doctor about conjugated linoleic acid before adding this to your supplement regimen.
Sources:
“Race-Ethnicity-Specific Waist Circumference Cutoffs for Identifying Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 2, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
“Body Fat Distribution and Long-Term Risk of Stroke Mortality” Stroke, Vol. 35, No. 5, May 2005, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
“Abdominal Fat Tied to Higher Stroke Risk” Amy Norton, Reuters Health, 5/10/05, reutershealth.com
“Protein Intake is Inversely Associated with Abdominal Obesity in a Multi-Ethnic Population” Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 135, No. 5, May 2005, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
