Abdominal obesity and excess amount of visceral fat are strongly linked to many serious health problems and chronic diseases. This is a simple, unarguable fact. In addition, many studies have shown that the biggest risk factor for the severity of COVID-19, the flu and other infectious diseases is a high level of visceral fat.
Loving yourself might be a nice thing, and I have nothing against it. But convincing yourself that it's ok to be overweight and feel “happy” about it will not change the fact, that any excess weight will harm your health and make you sick with time.
Waist circumference provides both independent information for predicting morbidity and risk of death. Measuring it should be a standard procedure at your GP’s office, but most times this is unfortunately not the case. Never mind, because you can easily do it at home as well.
The Nurses’ Health Study is one of the largest and longest studies to date investigating the risk factors for major chronic diseases. In the study, abdominal obesity has been measured and the relationship between waist size and death from heart disease, cancer, or any cause in middle-aged women have been examined.
After 16 years follow-up, the study found that women with the highest wast size, >88 cm, had the double risk of dying from CVD, cancer or any other cause. A very important point to note is that even women with a “normal” BMI (<25) but a larger waist (>88 cm) had three times! the risk to die from heart disease than women who had a smaller waist size.
Decrease in waist circumference is a critically important treatment target for reducing different health risks for people.
So, what you waist size should be? 80 cm, but preferably significantly less for women and 94 cm or preferably significantly less for men.
The good news is that with the right diet everybody can largely reduce their waist size and decrease significantly their risk for serious disease. Overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity are all the consequences of a bad diet and lifestyle. Being physically active is important for different reasons but to be able to achieve and maintain your ideal weight you need to eat the right way. You need an evolutionary adapted needs-based diet. If you stick to it and enjoy all the wonderful nutritious food it offers, and avoid all comfort food just to give yourself pleasure, you will have no more weight concerns.
Keep in mind, that tricking yourself by accepting your overweight body and abdominal obesity increases your risk for many severe chronic diseases and early death.
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