Stomach Obesity

Stomach obesity or central obesity is a medical condition. It is about the accumulation of fat cells around the belly which increases waist size and results in insulin resistance.

Stomach obesity is what we normally call the fat which collects around your middle.  Which results in an increase in your waist size.  This is called visceral fat and is regarded as very dangerous to health.  Anyone telling you to do sit ups and belly exercises to get rid of this belly is probably not aware that it is the least effective way to get rid of it. Visceral fat is one of the toughest body parts to lose weight on.

Recent research in Finland confirmed that stomach obesity is strongly linked to type-2 diabetes.  It also confirmed that waist size is a leading indicator for type-2 diabetes.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the alarm on the link between obesity and these metabolic disorders such as type-2 diabetes.  The Malaysian government is today, extremely concerned about the Malaysian obesity statistics.

Malaysian doctors today know that stomach obesity is a leading indicator for metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Doctors also recognise that they need to differentiate body fat into subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat is the fat directly under the skin, the type that we can pinch and grab. Visceral fat however is the dangerous fat lurking deep within our abdomens, wrapping around our organs, creating havoc with our body’s regulating mechanisms.  Visceral fat is the direct cause of type-2 diabetes, and this cannot be eliminated through normal weight loss methods such as dieting or exercise.

To properly diagnose stomach obesity, new test methods have been developed such as the Body Volume Index (BVI) and the Index of Central Obesity (ICO).  We can see today that the BVI has been adopted as the new measure of health risk resulting from being overweight and obese.

Still in the development phase due to its sophisticated computing system with 3D body scanning to see body mass distribution, the BVI system is expected to be ready by 2020.   The BVI will enable an easy check on the health risk for people of same BMI values.  Until then, BMI with the body fat% analysis will be key for health risk assessments.