Belly fat worse than obesity?
Carrying Around Belly Fat Hurts Your Heart More than Obesity
Just because you aren’t obese doesn’t mean you are off the hook when it comes to having fat that can cause heart disease.If you have extra fat around your belly, you are more likely to die from heart disease than patients who are obese, a study by Mayo Clinic researchers has found. The scientists said that having fat around your organs is dangerous even if you don’t have a lot of fat elsewhere, according to coverage of the study on Live Science.
The study followed nearly 13,000 American adults for about 14 years. The participants were classified as having normal weight or being overweight or obese, depending on their body mass index. The scientists also looked at their waist-to-hip ratio to determine how much fat they had around their abdomen.
“Our research shows that if a person has a normal BMI, this by itself should not reassure them that their risk for heart disease is low. Where their fat is distributed on their body can mean a lot,” said study researcher Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.Those with normal body weight but lots of fat around their waist were most likely to die from any cause — especially from cardiovascular disease.
The high risk of death may be related to a higher visceral fat accumulation in this group, which is associated with insulin resistance and other risk factors,” said study researcher Dr. Karine Sahakyan, also of Mayo Clinic.
The study was presented today (Aug. 27) at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.
