Busting belly-fat myths and uncovering belly-fat truths
What do you think these numbers represent: 69.3, 195.5, 39.7? And 63.8, 166.2, 37.5?
No, they’re not the stock price of Tesla and Snapchat over the past week.
They’re the height, weight and waist circumferences of the average American man and woman! And they add up to huge health problems. The biggest culprit? The waist measurements — 39.7 inches (guys) and 37.5 inches (gals) — indicating that most of YOU have large deposits of visceral belly fat surrounding your internal organs.
Study after study shows that whether you’re normal weight, overweight or obese, it’s the amount of visceral belly fat you have pushing your belly button everforward that puts your health at greatest risk. You see, visceral fat has unique and very active physiologic and metabolic characteristics. As it nestles around your internal organs, too much visceral fat can trigger metabolic changes, alter the way your liver functions, impede glucose uptake from blood (where it does damage to your cells) and amp up bodywide inflammation.