Did you know that not all fat is created equal? Visceral fat is the insidious, deep layer of fat that you cannot pinch. Yet, it lives around your liver, pancreas and intestines releasing toxic inflammatory chemicals. Individuals with higher visceral fat are more likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver. There are both genetic and lifestyle reasons that some people develop a deep layer of “bad” fat and others do not. Eating too much without enough exercise will increase your waist line, both pinchable and not. But, the deep fat is more likely if you drink too much alcohol or eat too much processed and sugary foods.
How do you know if you have too much visceral fat? The easiest way is to measure your waist line. Waist measurements should be taken from the top of the hip bones in the back and stretched to measure around the level with your belly button. And, exhale. Holding your breath while measuring is cheating! If your waist is higher than 40 inches for men or 35 for women and you cannot easily hold that excess fat in a pinchable grip, you most likely have a high level of visceral fat. A healthy waist measurement for men is less than 37 and for women less than 32. An ideal waist to hip ration for men is 0.9 or less and 0.8 or less for women.
At our office, we use an InBody machine to accurately measure subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, muscle mass and body water. This machine sends an alternating current through your body to determine these measurements. You cannot feel this current, but the accuracy is based on the current moves through water, fat and muscle at differing speeds.
While we want to improve how a patient looks with tools like CoolSculpting, Profound and CoolTone. We also want our patients to be their healthiest. And, determining the high risk fat level is one predictor of long term health. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the storing of too much fat in the liver, can actually lead to cirrhosis. The risk of NAFLD is on the rise in America. This dangerous fat is a serious threat.
How do you get rid of this dangerous fat? Unfortunately, you cannot get rid of this fat through CoolSculpting or liposuction. You have to create a calorie deficit through eating less and exercising more. Limit the worst offenders first – sugar, processed foods and alcohol. In our office, we recommend the Prolon fasting-mimicking diet to decrease both deep and subcutaneous fat. We use a genetic blood test, Pathway Fit, to teach individuals about their genetic risk for carrying too much fat.
How do I get rid of the pockets of fat I can pinch? When you lose weight, there are certain areas that lose it before others. And, you can be left with areas of fat you want to reduced or loose skin you want tightened. For pinchable areas of fat on most any part of the body, we use CoolSculpting. It is a great tool to reduce unwanted and unsightly fat. We use Profound to tighten loose skin in certain areas of the body and CoolTone to strengthen the underlying muscles.
If you want to both look and feel your best, call us at 770-753-0053 today!
