Why are some people apple-shaped or pear-shaped? Nutrition researchers have been examining this question for years. How useful would knowing the answer to this be for a trainer or other staff at your club?
Until recently, it was thought that both body shape and obesity were controlled by important genes that are part of the mechanisms regulating normal development. Genes tell the body where the head goes and where the tail goes — what goes on the front and what goes on the back. Genes may determine how many fat cells we have and where they are located. When it comes to obesity, the location of body fat can significantly impact one’s risk for developing serious chronic diseases.
But studies have also shown that 3 to 5 percent of diseases are related to genes while 80 percent of today’s chronic diseases are related to diet and lifestyle. If a member can alter their nutrition and exercise, can they overcome their genetics?
Doctors have long recognized that people who are “apple-shaped” — with their fat concentrated in the abdomen — are much higher risk for diabetes and metabolic syndrome than those whose fat is mainly subcutaneous, i.e., distributed beneath the skin primarily in the buttocks and thighs.
Now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have pinpointed a protein that plays a part in how fat is stored in the body. Levels of the protein, known as 11BetaHSD1, tend to be higher in the presence of an unhealthy type of body fat, which tends to be stored around the torso — typical of “apple-shapes.”
Healthier fat, linked to lower levels of the protein, tends to be stored around the hips and is used more safely by the body as a source of energy — typical of people who are “pear-shaped.”
New findings from nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest that it’s not whether body fat is stored in the belly that affects various risk factors, but whether it collects in the liver.
Having too much liver fat is known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. When fat collects in the liver, people experience serious metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, which affects the body’s ability to metabolize sugar. They also have an increase in the production of fat particles in the liver that are secreted into the bloodstream and increase the level of triglycerides.
People who are obese, but don’t have high levels of fat in the liver, should be encouraged to lose weight, but those with elevated liver fat are at particularly high risk for heart disease and diabetes. They need to be treated aggressively to help them lose weight because dropping pounds can make a big difference.
Even two days of calorie restriction can cause a large reduction in liver fat and improvement in liver insulin sensitivity! How encouraging would it be for some of your clients to know that they can reduce or eliminate their genetic risk factors and take control of their health outcomes?
Judith Samuels, M.A. is a certified nutrition and wellness consultant and master personal trainer at Sport&Health Clubs in the Washington D.C. Metro Area. She can be reached via e-mail at judi@judisamuels.com.
The pervasiveness of “fructose” in our food supply is directly correlated to fatty liver.
Fructose can only be metabolized in the liver as all toxins are…the rest of the cells of the body cannot use this substrate unlike glucose.
Recent studies took college athletes and fed them glucose and then fructose…very little of the glucose was stored as fat…30% of the fructose after ingesting was stored as fat.