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BELLY FAT – MUCH MORE THAN EXCESS WEIGHT – Part I
What exactly is visceral fat? It’s fat that accumulates in our abdomen. It’s not the fat that we can grab hold of and pinch around our middle. It’s fat that is deeper and wraps around our heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas. It is very dangerous fat that is linked to heart disease, stroke, insulin resistance and diabetes, obesity, chronic inflammation, arthritis, sleep disorders, sexual dysfunction, hormonal imbalance (especially estrogen dominance), depression, anxiety, cancer, intense stress and memory issues.
As we just alluded to, there are two kinds of fat; one is visceral fat, and one is subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat covers about 80% of our total body fat. It’s stubborn fat that lies just under the skin. Visceral fat, on the other hand, comprises about 10-20% of fat in men and 5- 7% fat in women. A large waist and a protruding belly are sign of having too much visceral fat.
Too much visceral fat can interfere with our organ function, affecting how our body operates overall. It can trigger our body’s inflammatory pathways, which can promote inflammation and interference with cell communication and normal hormone function.
When we eat, our body breaks down sugar and starches into smaller units called glucose and fructose, which is sugar in its simplest forms that can now enter our bloodstream. Once there, our pancreas is triggered to release insulin to help move the blood sugar into our cells throughout our body. There it is stored and used for energy to support our brain, muscle and tissue functions.
Insulin doesn’t only take care of blood sugar, though. It communicates with our body’s fat stores, as well – including visceral fat. This is why insulin is also known as a fat-storage hormone, because if we have too much blood sugar in our system, our body will store any excess it doesn’t need for energy as fat.
High-sugar foods are easily and quickly converted into simple sugars, meaning they can enter our bloodstream very quickly, which causes a very rapid release of insulin, which stores it as fat – including excess visceral fat. High-Sugar foods not only causes excess weight gain, but also feeds into a vicious cycle of hunger, overeating, sweet cravings and difficulty resisting more carbs.
We have around 50 hormones, and insulin is kind of like the mother of everyone, meaning it has great influence over the other hormones and can create hormonal imbalances in other areas: like our stress hormone cortisol, our thyroid, sex hormones, and hunger hormones etc.
These imbalances lead to low energy, mood fluctuations, cravings, weight gain, even more inflammation, and also lead to a higher risk of chronic diseases. Furthermore, when our cells become resistant to insulin from the constant overproduction, these symptoms of hormonal imbalance are increased.
What are some of the signs of insulin resistance?
So, our tendency is to seek treatment for the hormonal issue, but not really address the cause of it. That can be true for all of those symptoms of insulin resistance, as well, such as high blood pressure or obesity. If we don’t get to the root cause, we will never conquer it.
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