Ladies, did you know that there are two primary different types of fat in our bodies? Fat in our body can be divided into visceral and subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is the fat around the skin, while visceral fat is the fat that surrounds the organs.
We can reduce the presence of subcutaneous and visceral fat. Losing subcutaneous fat can make us have a small body circumference, and is usually associated with weight loss and body shaping. Meanwhile, the decrease in visceral fat can improve our health, especially related to degenerative diseases.
Subcutaneous fat is usually visible and can be pinched. Everyone is born with both subcutaneous and visceral fat, but the amount of subcutaneous fat we have depends on our genetics and lifestyle factors such as physical activity and diet. In general, people with high subcutaneous fat often have high visceral fat. So, subcutaneous fat can be a sign of visceral fat.
People Are More Likely To Accumulate Fats When :
- Have a sedentary lifestyle, or spend a lot of time sitting
- Just have a little or no aerobic exercise
- They have little muscle mass
- They eat more calories than they burn
- They are insulin resistant or have diabetes
Is fat bad for the body?
Fat is a store of energy for the body and helps regulate body temperature. Furthermore, subcutaneous fat acts as a padding to protect muscles and bones from impact or falls serve as a passageway for nerves and blood vessels between skin and muscles and helps attach the skin to muscles and bones.
Although fat is an important part of the body, storing too much fat can increase the risk of health problems including :
- Heart disease and stroke
- High blood pressure
- Type 2 diabetes
- Certain types of cancer
- Sleep apnea
- Fatty liver
- Kidney disease
How Do We Know If We Have Too Much Fat?
The most accurate way is to use Bioimpedance Analysis (BIA) to measure body composition and find out the percent body fat. According to The American Council on Exercise, good body fat levels are:
- Female athletes: 14-20%
- Male athletes: 6-13%
- Female fit/workout: 21-24%
- Male fit/workout: 14-17%
- Still acceptable for women: 25%-31%
- Still acceptable for men: 18-25%
Women with body fat percentage above 32% and men with body fat percentage above 26%, meaning that they have excessive fat levels and can be categorized as obese.
If you don't have a body composition measurement tool where you live, you can also use the Body Mass Index (BMI), which gives you the ratio of your weight to your height. Referring to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, the classification is as follows:
- Severe underweight: BMI <17
- Mild underweight: BMI 17-18.4
- Normal weight: BMI 18.5 to 25
- Mildly overweight: BMI 25.1 to 27
- Severe overweight: BMI >27
Another way to determine if you have excess fat is to measure your waist. Men with a waist size of more than 40 inches and women with a waist size of more than 35 inches can increase the risk of developing obesity-related diseases.
Both types of fat can be difficult to lose. Some factors that make fat hard to lose include :
- Insulin resistance
Visceral fat is correlated with insulin resistance, which can make it difficult to lose both visceral and subcutaneous fat.
- Weight loss strategy mistakes
People with a lot of subcutaneous fat often make the mistake of trying to lose fat by, for example, doing a lot of abdominal exercises. This strategy is less effective than trying to burn fat all over the body.
- Inflammation
Some research has shown that visceral fat releases cytokines that increase inflammation. This inflammatory response is associated with weight gain and may increase subcutaneous fat.
In the end, maintaining the amount of fat both subcutaneous and visceral in our body is very important to prevent many diseases, especially those related to obesity. In the next article, we will discuss how to reduce body fat. Stay tuned on Fitie!
Sources :
Vilines, Z., & Bubnis, D. (2017). Ways to lose subcutaneous fat. MedicalNewsToday. [online]. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319236
Forthingham, S. & Marcin, J. (2018). What Is Subcutaneous Fat?. Healthline. [online]. https://www.healthline.com/health/subcutaneous-fat