Sunday, September 4, 2011

Abdominal fat is Bad


It's amazing how excess weight goes on different people. We even have names for the basic shapes: hour glass, apple, pear, straight etc.

No wonder we need such large wardrobes, extensive (and expensive!) shopping expeditions and still can't find anything to wear!

Unfortunately for me, I put most of my weight around my waist as a tyre. This kind of fat is the worst and it's the stuff that shows on the outside the state of my organs on the inside.

Estrogen first affects females during puberty when it is part of the process for developing breasts and a wider pelvis, but it also plays a part in where fat distributes on your body. When estrogen is reduced after menopause, the absence causes fat to shift from buttock, hips and thigh to the abdomen. Excessive amounts of the masculizing hormones has the same effect, hence Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome causes weight to redistribute to the bad areas as well. Bummer.

And as Diabetes is a known co-morbidity for Polycystic Ovaries, I am even more gutted to learn that it's a double whammy.

While researching, I found the following explanation:
Your fat cells take longer to get insulin resistant. That is why we gain weight in the abdominal area when we have partial insulin resistance. Insulin takes sugar and stores it as fat in your cells. So until your fat cells become totally insulin resistant you continue to gain weight. Then your weight will plateau as the fat cells protect themselves. Your linings of your arteries do not become insulin resistant, and as insulin increases, more plague will build-up in the lining. This is why coronary artery disease is much higher in people with insulin resistance.
So basically my fat cells want to hang out on my abdomen and when they get there, they park up like good-for-nothings.

I've been having a bad weekend, food-wise, and picked at party food yesterday as well as Twisties last night, Fruit popcorn and too many grapes today and a couple of chocolate chippie cookies this afternoon.

All those carbs and sugar are poison to me! I even have the headache to prove it.

Fortunately I find the week easier to manage food-wise than the weekend, so I will be glad to get back into it tomorrow, and I know that I can always start again right now. So dinner will be stir fry kale and other veggies and lean steak. And I will make a particular effort to drink plenty of water.

So my weekly weigh in is 88.3kg. I am happy with that, but aware that it's just as easy to put back on and I have a long way to go.

1 comment:

  1. Bad weekend here too. Trina was down and we just pigged out Fri night. I woke up Saturday like I had a hangover.
    It's way too easy to overindulge in the weekends.

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