A new study suggests that adults who aren’t technically overweight but have a lot of fat around their tummy run a higher death risk than people who are obese.
Conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the study looked at people with normal body mass index scores who also fit the definition for “central obesity” — meaning they had a high waist-to-hip ratio.
Normal-weight patients with a lot of belly fat, it turned out, had the highest death risks from cardiovascular disease and other causes, according to a study presented Monday, Aug. 27, at a scientific meeting in Europe.
Central obesity is measured by comparing the circumference of a patient’s stomach to a circumference of the hips. When the stomach measurement is 90 percent or more of the hip measurement in men, and 85 percent or more of the hip measurement in women, a patient generally is thought to have a worrisome distribution of fat.
Researchers calculated mortality rates for study participants over a follow-up period that typically spanned about 14 years.
During the period, there were about 2,562 deaths, of which 1,138 were related to cardiovascular problems.The risk of cardiovascular death was 2.75 times higher, and the risk of death from all causes was 2.08 times higher, in people of normal weight with central obesity versus those who had a normal BMI score and a normal waist-to-hip ratio.
Need help losing that belly fat accumulated over the winter months??
Leave a Reply