Belly Fat Tied to Raised Heart and Cancer Risks

by | Jul 29, 2013 | Fats, Weight gain | 0 comments

Belly Carrying too much fat around the abdomen puts people at greater risk for heart disease and cancer compared with people who have a similar body mass index (BMI) but who carry their fat in other parts of the body.

So says a US study published online in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Previous studies have shown that the risk of disease and death linked to obesity or being overweight varies among individuals with the same BMI (body mass index – the ratio of their weight in kilos to their height in metres squared).

Now a new study suggests ectopic fat – that is, fat present where it shouldn’t be, in this case the highly visible spare tyre(s) around the middle – might explain this variation.

We already know that carrying excess fat around the waist can be more dangerous than carrying it elsewhere, such as the hips or the thighs (apple-shaped as opposed to pear-shaped).

But this latest study, from lead author Kathryn A. Britton, instructor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues, is the first to use CT scans to see which specific deposits of excess fat are linked to disease risk.

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Late Bedtimes Linked To Weight Gain In Healthy People

by | Jul 23, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Weight gain | 0 comments

Sleep If you are healthy and go to bed late regularly and you do not sleep enough, your risk of gaining weight is significantly greater than if you go to bed earlier and have a good night’s sleep every night, says a new study published in the journal Sleep.

If you also eat late at night, you will probably put on even more weight, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania added. In fact, they say it is the extra eating among sleep-deprived individuals that appears to be the main reason for the weight gain.

The authors say that theirs is the largest study so far of healthy people, under controlled laboratory conditions, that demonstrates a clear association between very late night sleeping combined with sleep restriction and weight gain.

Andrea Spaeth and team had one group of participants sleeping just from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. each night for five nights running, and compared them to a control group who were in bed from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

The investigators also found that those who slept much less consumed more food, and therefore calories, compared to the normal-hours sleepers. Meals eaten during the late-night hours had a higher overall fat content than the other meals.

Lead author, Andrea Spaeth, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania, said:

“Although previous epidemiological studies have suggested an association between short sleep duration and weight gain/obesity, we were surprised to observe significant weight gain during an in-laboratory study.”

The experiment was conducted at the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. It involved 225 people aged between 22 and 50 years, all of them healthy and non-obese. They were randomly selected either into the sleep restriction group or control group, and stayed in the lab for up to 18 days.

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Here’s the truth about belly fat

by | Apr 15, 2013 | Fats, How Your Body Works, Obesity, Weight gain | 0 comments

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Having a stomach or belly fat is never healthy whether you’re a man or a woman because the amount of fat that you carry around your stomach is a clear indicator of the amount of fat that surrounds your heart as well and when you consider whatever your heart does you don’t really want its function impeded by an excess of fat.

Here’s an article that might help you uncover the secrets to belly fat and how to get rid of it.

Link to the article

Long-Term Study Confirms High BMI a Risk Factor for LBP

by | Apr 9, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Obesity, Weight gain | 0 comments

1299867383kZua0VOne of the things that sorted itself out when I lost weight was the back pain that I used to suffer from time to time and it’s not surprising really because when you’re carrying a lot of weight at the front as many men do you tend to lean back and of course that does bring a lot more strain on the lower part of your back. Not only that, the top part of your body is heavier as well and all that extra weight goes through the one point at the base of your spine.

Once again here’s a study that’s interesting whilst you could say it points out the obvious. It’s nice having common sense proven by a bit of science once in a while.

Link to the article

Overweight While Younger Ups Kidney Risk Later

by | Apr 9, 2013 | Degenerative Diseases, How Your Body Works, Obesity, Weight gain | 0 comments

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According to this study by Dr. Dorothea Nitsch of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, we are more likely to suffer chronic kidney disease when we’re older if we are fat when we’re younger. In fact according to the latest research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, you’re more than twice as likely to have CKD in your 60s if you’re overweight in your 20s than you would be if you stayed at a normal weight right up until your 60s.

What I found strange about the whole report interesting though it is, is that they don’t seem to be able to nail down the causes of this statistical correlation.

Yet when you consider what the kidneys do for our body, clearing out a lot of the garbage that it doesn’t need, someone who is overweight when they’re younger is producing a lot more garbage for their kidneys to clear out.

It shouldn’t be any wonder that after a lifetime of having to work harder than the kidneys of somebody consuming normal amounts of food that the kidneys of an overweight person would start to fail quite drastically as they get older.

Link to the article

Waistline Index Grows as Emerging Markets Eat Fast Food

by | Apr 8, 2013 | Diabetes, Fats, Food Choices, General Health, Nutrition, Obesity, Sensible Eating, Weight gain | 0 comments

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If anyone doubts the correlation between the increased consumption in fast food and the steadily growing waistlines in both men and women would do well to have a quick peek at this rather informative article from Bloomberg. It shows a direct correlation between the influx of fast food chains into many countries around the world in the late 80s and the average weight gain and waist size increase that has been measured in these countries today.

 Now while it may be unfair to lay the dietary ills of all these reason converts to fast food at the doors of the likes of McDonald’s and Pizza Hut and Dominoes and fill in the blank, it is certain that the changes in diet encouraged by the successful advertising of these companies has had an adverse effect on the eating habits of the countries that they have steadily been achieving a significant market share within.

Link to the article