What is Obesity? Is all body fat bad?

Question- a) What is “Obesity”?  b) Is all body fat bad?

Obesity, in the truest sense, is an excessive amount of fat, or adipose tissue, deposited on the “visceral” organs of the body. It is often accompanied by insulin resistance, hypertension and vascular disease. If you have 10% or less visceral fat (of body weight)- you wont have trouble getting rid of it. If you have more than 20%- you will start having trouble getting rid of it. If you have more than 30%- “Whoa Nellie…!”

The worst affected area are the “abdominal visceral” area. These organs are primarily the peritoneum, stomach, duodenum, liver, pancreas, intestines, colon, spleen, kidney, adrenal gland and gall bladder.

The “cervical visceral” area is also affected. The affect on the cervical visceral region is worse on the ovaries, uterus and regions of the fallopian tube of women. The blood flow to the testes of men is also affected.

I have not, and will not mention BMI, because it does not give any measure of the visceral fat in the body.

No, not all body fat is bad. Smaller chain (2-4 chain length long) fatty acids combine with small chain length “peptides” (2-4 chain length amino acids) to form the “lipoprotein” membrane of most of our cell walls. So, some fat (a specific type) is ESSENTIAL for our survival.

The Inuits in the Canadian region of Alaska, routinely add 12%-20% of “subcutaneous” fat on their body to protect from them from the extreme cold. They shed most of it in summer and put it on again in winter. A survival ritual. It is not harmful. Many sumo wrestlers I have measured have a lot of “subcutaneous” fat and very little visceral fat when they are training and in competition. I have not tried to figure out why (yet).

There is a lot being written on the “brown fat” on the body of athletes. It was first seen on the neck region of gymnasts and people who did a lot of “pull ups” that had well defined Trapezoid muscles. The buzz was how much “calories” “these” people with “brown fat” burnt. Hang on though… Look at the type of individual this fat is found on. It is the “body composition” of these people that burns the additional calories and not the “brown fat”. I will deal with this topic in another question. Brown fat is thought to lubricate the performance muscles it is found in, but this is just a theory.

The “brown fat”, “lipoprotein” membrane fat, “Intramyocellular” lipids or fat  are essential for the body. Subcutaneous fat may play a function in protecting the body and may not be very harmful (I am neutral on this). Visceral fat is a NO! NO! and is the really bad stuff.

Visceral fat actually acts as an additional organ in the body and starts “feeding” itself by playing havoc with the natural hormone systems in the body. I wont deal with this in this session.