nutrition

Visceral vs. Subcutaneous fat

Let’s start with: what is the difference between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat?
Subcutaneous fat is fat just under the surface of your skin. So, when you look at yourself in the
mirror, if you see an extra few centimetres of flesh around your waist, tummy, arms and
thighs, then you are more-than-likely seeing the evidence of your subcutaneous fat manifesting
itself!

Visceral fat is hidden deeper inside your body and surrounds the organs; which means you’re not
going to see it in your mirror. And believe it or not : slim people can also have visceral fat! They can
store fat around their internal organs, thus ‘slim’ does not always = healthy!

The key difference between the two types of fat is that the one you can see evidence of in a mirror
(subcutaneous) can actually offer some benefits, while visceral fat, unless controlled to manageable
levels, can increase the risk of a variety of illnesses – many of them serious.

Beneficial Fat
Apparently, research has indicated that it is normal for healthy people to accumulate around 80% –
90% of their fat in the parts of the body where it is most beneficial i.e. in the subcutaneous areas. So,
it goes some way towards protecting the body from impact or trauma, positively affecting energy levels and helping to manage body temperature.

On the other hand…visceral fat…

Apart from providing some protection to internal organs, this fat can (in excess) be responsible for causing sicknesses such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, asthma, strokes, fatty liver disease, chronic inflammation throughout the body and cancer. It’s also not great for your blood pressure!

I think most of us accept that, whatever type of fat we have, we definitely don’t want too much! But
one thing is clear, when it comes to fat, it’s the visceral variety that presents more serious problems
for our health.

How your body deals with fat is down to a number of factors. Genetics plays a large part in deciding
how you store fat, while diet, exercise and stress also impact the type of fat that collects in your
body.

It’s not easy to find out how much visceral fat you have in your body (except by CT or MRI scanners).
Unlike subcutaneous fat (as already mentioned above) which can be seen (and grabbed!)

However, it is highly likely that, if you have excessive subcutaneous fat, then your visceral fat level will also be higher than it should be.

To try to determine indications of the level of visceral fat in someone’s body doctors have been
using the BMI (Body Mass Index) tool (now thought to be too simplistic in determining a person’s
health by measuring only height and weight) and simple waist measurements. If these are taken
with the tape measure around your waist at the level of your navel and give a reading of more than
35” for women and 40” for men (doctors recommend a different metric for Asian people who tend
to have a higher visceral fat risk), it means that it is likely that your visceral fat levels are too high. Another measure is the waist-to-hip ratio : In women above 0.85 and in men above 1.0 is considered high risk for health issues.

The Good News!
One of the best ways to mitigate the effects of both types of fat on your body is diet and exercise – preferably regular, consistent, focused exercise with a PT to achieve the optimum benefit, and a balanced diet of complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats. The objective being a controlled reduction in overall body fat which LASTS!

Research and acknowledgements
https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org
https://www.dibesity.com
https://www.gilmorehealth.com
https://www.rwt.nhs.uk/PIL/MI_11240414_09.01.23_V_1.pdf

Why don’t Men and Women Benefit Equally from Doing the Same Exercises?

Ever trained identically with a partner or friend of the opposite sex and wondered why their results are different from yours? Why do men seem to lose fat faster, or gain muscle quicker? Why can women run longer and not fatigue as quickly?

I train a mixture of genders, and witness first-hand the difference that genes, hormones and mental-attitude can have on results.

There was some research in 2024 by Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai academic healthcare
organisation in Los Angeles which revealed that women will achieve greater cardiovascular benefit
than men even if they exercise less frequently. Studies also found that, when it comes to longer term
health and wellbeing benefits e.g. greater longevity, women probably don’t have to work out as
much as men to achieve similar value from the exercise.

My own experience as a PT has shown me that, while women are (potentially) capable of doing the
same exercises as men, it is a physiological fact that the female body is different to the male
physique and therefore everyone’s expectations of their capabilities and outcomes have to be
managed with this in mind. For example, simply put, men have a natural advantage with anaerobic exercise (HIIT, weightlifting…any short, high-intensity bursts of exercise)while women are more disposed towards those types of exercise which are more focused on endurance (long distance running/cycling/swimming).

This does not mean, however, that you should only train in that one area.

With Personal Training, exercises are designed to extract the greatest benefit for the exerciser, so, for males, the workout will be more likely to include elements which utilise their greater muscle mass due to their higher levels of testosterone which increases the rate of muscle growth and also speeds recovery.

Women simply don’t have the same hormonal make-up which means they do not possess the equivalent
muscle mass nor do they experience the same rate of muscle growth.

Body fat plays a part in differentiating the impact that certain exercises have on women and men.
Men’s body fat is generally lower than women’s (hormones again!) and is stored mainly around the
internal organs, whereas women’s body fat is deposited largely nearer the surface, under the skin.
This variance in distribution of body fat can affect levels of energy during exercise.

Why women should still weight-lift
One major difference in level of benefit for women over men is in the area of strength training which
can deliver a long-term payoff in the form of healthier joints and bones and can help offset the
impact of lower bone density (common issue in Women over 50).

What I have discovered over the years as a PT is that women come to PT having done a range of cardio-based exercise before (dance, walking, running), but never tried strength-training. But I introduce anaerobic exercises, such as power-focused sessions, to ensure that they are challenged to move outside their comfort zone.

Another win for the ladies:
Studies have found that women cope with endurance-based exercises better than men and can recover more quickly than men after exercise. Women also have better staying power than men which means they can keep going for longer!

Why men should still do cardio:
On the other hand, my male clients can gain more from cardio because it’s a challenge for them. It
burns fat and promotes endurance which are the outcomes that deliver the benefits they seek over
and above the training paybacks they are more familiar with (being more accustomed to strength training and anaerobic workouts).

What is the “Takeaway”?
Men’s and women’s bodies (and minds) react differently to the same exercise. Different levels of
strength, hormones, muscle fibre differences and Cardiovascular variations all play their part. Basically, whether you’re a man or a woman, you need to be provided with a fitness and wellbeing programme to suit you – which plays to your strengths, but also challenges your ‘weaknesses’.

Research and Acknowledgements
https://www.cedars-sinai.org
https://www.nih.gov
https://drlauryn.com
https://obefitness.com

Tag: nutrition

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