Reducing Belly Fat Might Lower Your Risk For Alzheimer’s. So How The Hell Do We Actually Do It?
by The Candidly Team
This isn’t an article about thinness or calories or weight loss. It is an article about health. In fact, it’s about one particular type of fat that affects our health.
A recent study found that holding excess belly fat in midlife could be associated with signs of Alzheimer’s decades before a person is diagnosed with the disease.
Specifically, there’s a form of deep abdominal fat known as visceral fat (also commonly called “hidden fat” as it gathers around the organs). Its buildup has been linked to inflammation and many other health concerns, but this particular study shows how it may increase levels of two proteins that can be damaging to the brain. In a follow-up study, the same researchers further found that the more visceral fat someone develops, the worse their blood flow to their brain can become.
“To our knowledge, our study is the only one to demonstrate these findings at midlife where our participants are decades out from developing the earliest symptoms of the dementia that results from Alzheimer’s disease,” said researcher Dr. Mahsa Dolatshahi of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
And all of this really begs the question of what can be done about it?
So Let’s Start By Looking At Visceral Fat:
First off, it’s not the same as the visible fat we commonly think/ complain about. “Subcutaneous fat is fat that’s stored just beneath your skin. It’s the kind that you can pinch between your fingers. Visceral fat is different. Visceral fat is behind your abdominal muscles and can’t be seen. It surrounds your stomach, liver, intestines and other organs,” wrote The Cleveland Clinic.
Here’s the problem. While a healthy level of visceral fat is fine and can protect your organs, according the The Cleveland Clinic, too much can lead to:
Stroke risk
Breast cancer, colorectal cancer and other types of cancer.
Dementia: One study showed that people in their early 40s with “the highest levels of abdominal fat, compared with those who had the least abdominal fat at that age, were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia,” according to Harvard Health.
If It Can Be “Hidden” How Do You Know If You Have Too Much Visceral Fat?
Well, your belly can certainly start to stick out more. In fact, being more of an apple shape could mean you’re more at risk. And women tend to become more apple-shaped with age. “As women go through their middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight tends to increase — more than it does in men — and fat storage begins favoring the upper body over the hips and thighs,” wrote Harvard Health. “Even if you don't actually gain weight, your waistline can grow by inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal wall.”
It’s an excellent idea to talk to your doctor about your own personal risk. But apparently about 10% of a person’s body fat is typically visceral fat. While the Alzheimer’s study used actual MRI machines to measure visceral fat, a more common, at-home method uses a mere tape measure. Here’s a way to do it according to Harvard, and it’s good to know because for one thing, you don’t start at the smallest part of your waist.
In general, in women, having a waist circumference of 35 inches or larger can be a sign of too much visceral fat, stated Harvard.
While these methods won’t necessarily perfectly distinguish visceral fat from subcutaneous fat, here are some other ways of measuring body fat, according to The Cleveland Clinic:
Waist-to-hip ratio: In women, if it’s higher than 0.85 in women, it apparently “indicates abdominal obesity.”
Body mass index: A BMI of over 25 is considered overweight in women, while over 30 is considered obese.
Waist-height ratio: Measure your waist circumference and then divide that number by your height. So if you’re 64 inches tall and your waist circumference is 32 inches, you divide 32 by 64 and get .5. If the ratio is more than .5, it could be at an unhealthy level.
But here’s the thing. Is it possible to be thin or at a “normal weight” and still store too much visceral fat? Yes. According to Healthline, you can have high levels of this type fat and low muscle mass. This could occur when you don’t exercise enough, eat a diet high in refined sugar, drink too much alcohol, don’t get enough protein or other essential nutrients, or when your body starts to produce less estrogen around menopause.
The very good news is that there is A TON that is in our power when it comes to dealing with visceral fat.
What Can You Do To Cut Down Visceral Fat?
Move, move, and move: Aerobic activity and things like brisk walking are huge. HUGE!
Strength train: At least twice a week but more if you can manage.
Eat more fiber and whole grains. Fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains like oats, brown rice and barley. It’s best to avoid things that are chalked full of added sugars, salts, and saturated fats. One study even showed eating 10 more grams of soluble fiber a day led to a 3.7% lower risk of gaining belly fat.
Limit sugar: Especially sugary beverages and highly processed foods. There are also studies that associate artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine with higher visceral fat.
Cut alcohol: No amount is really healthy, but drinking it can specifically increase visceral belly fat.
Don't smoke. It can lead to more storage of fat in your midsection.
Get the right amount of sleep: At least 7 hours.
Find ways to destress: Like all aspects of health, stress is bad news for belly fat.
While it isn’t always easy to make the lifestyle changes that we just listed out so nonchalantly, it is at least a silver lining to understand what our efforts are doing for our health, not just lengthening our lives but improving the quality of them. Reducing our risk of Alzheimer’s is as good a motivation as any to sprinkle more raspberries into our yogurt and white beans into our salad, to take that extra 20-minute walk, and to lose that stubborn bit of weight around our waist, not because some bullshit beauty magazine told us to, but because we want to take care of our beautiful brains.
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