The Surprisingly High Risk of Belly Fat

by Dr. Dana Myatt

Have you ever seen a man or woman with normal-sized legs and lower body but with a belly that sticks out like they’re nine months pregnant with triplets? Of course you have!

I call this a “carbo belly” (some call it a beer belly), and it is the type of fat distribution that puts a person at MUCH higher risk for heart disease.

It is even possible to be a normal weight for one’s height yet still have a waist diameter that increases heart-risk. In fact, how much belly fat you carry is more important than how fat you are overall.

In a study done at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, researchers measured and followed the abdominal diameter of 101,765 men and women for nearly 12 years.

Their study found that men with the biggest bellies had 42 percent higher rates of heart disease than men with smaller waist diameters. Women with the biggest bellies were at 44 percent higher risk. This risk was seen even in normal weight subjects with big bellies.

The take-home message:

If you carry excess fat in your gut, you’re at higher risk of heart disease than if you have, say, a big butt. (No extra charge for the rhyme).

Fortunately, the cure for belly fat is simple: cut down – cut WAY down – on simple carbohydrate foods like breads, cereals, potatoes, rice, corn, and sweets, while you increase your intake of protein, Omega-3 fats and non-starchy veggies.

A few days per week of The Super Fast Diet will jump-start your belly fat weight loss program and get you out of the heart-disease danger zone fast.

Please Note:

Dr. Myatt is an expert in the field of weight loss and treatment of metabolic and overweight-related conditions. For more information  please see her paper, written for medical doctors, called Dietary Ketosis in the Treatment of Overweight, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome.

Additional information about weight loss can be found at The Wellness Club: WEIGHT LOSS – The Skinny on Losing Weight for Good

References:

1.) Value of the sagittal abdominal diameter in coronary heart disease risk assessment: cohort study in a large, multiethnic population. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Dec 15;164(12):1150-9. Epub 2006 Oct 13. Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Oakland 94612, and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital, CA, USA.
2.) Carbohydrate restriction alters lipoprotein metabolism by modifying VLDL, LDL, and HDL subfraction distribution and size in overweight men. J Nutr. 2006 Feb;136(2):384-9. Summary: weight loss which resulted from reduced carbohydrate intake decreased risk for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease.

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