Time to Break Up with Excess Body Fat.
Scientifically, body fat is called adipose tissue and is often underappreciated. It is an essential component of the body and serves several important functions like energy storage, hormone secretion, insulation, and organ protection, and it contains precursor stem cells.
This, though, doesn’t usually lead to a desire to gather more. And, for good reason.
Metabolic unhealthy adiposity or obesity, the condition of having too much fatty tissue in the body, contributes to havoc in the body. Fat tissues release pro-inflammatory cytokines and cause insulin resistance. Excess fat accumulates in the liver, skeletal muscle, and heart and leads to chronic, debilitating disease. It needs to go!
Fat isn’t just “fat”, you can call it names
There are 3 types of fat cells, white, brown, and beige. Fat cells can be stored in the body in 3 ways, essentially, subcutaneously, or viscerally.
White fat cells are found beneath the skin (subcutaneous fat), in connective tissues, and in the abdominal cavity (visceral fat). It stores energy for late use in various locations in your body.
Brown fat cells are thermogenic, turned on when you are cold, burning your calories to create heat. It is also reported to help regulate sugar and fat metabolism. It’s found in the neck, upper chest, shoulders, and stomach areas.
Beige fat cells are in the middle of brown and white. They assist in fat burning rather than fat storage.
Essential fat is, well, essential. It’s necessary. It is the kind of fat found in bones, brains, nerves, liver, kidneys, intestines, and muscles. Its roles include regulating hormones and body temperature. The amount of essential fat differs between men and women and is usually about 2%-5% for men, and 10%-13% for women to maintain optimum health.
Subcutaneous fat, a mix of brown, white, and beige fat (adipose) that makes up approximately 90% of body fat is located just under the skin and wrapped around vital organs. Its role is to provide protection, insulation and maintain body temperature. A decrease in fat percentage refers to the reduction of subcutaneous fat.
Visceral fat is the fat stored in the abdominal cavity and an excess can be hazardous as it can lead to strokes, hormonal imbalance, hypertension, and more.
The fat race
Body fat distribution is regulated by genetics. The rate of fat metabolism (fat breakdown) is also regulated by your genes. The rate at which fat accumulates, too, is regulated by genetics.
See a pattern here?
Have you heard of the myth that “fat makes you fat” and that in order to lose weight you need to follow a “low-fat diet”? In reality, fat from foods is not necessarily fattening. It very much depends on the type of fat you consume and your genetic tendencies to metabolize it.
The expectancy with a genetic tendency
Do you realize that if you have a low genetic tendency for reduced fat metabolism (meaning you have a low chance to have slow or malfunctioning fat metabolism) then eating fat is not an issue for you? Low-fat eating is less effective for you with this genetic profile, and another path is better.
Genetic variants and tendencies are identified through a simple, saliva genetic test. Do you have a genetic variant of the APOA2 gene decreasing the rate of fat metabolism? What about your gene variants for the FTO, PPARA, SEC16B, or UCP2 genes also involved in fat metabolism? Is your ADRB3 gene working effectively, creating a protein responsible for regulating body temperature and breaking down fats in adipose tissue? Do you know what to do if not?
The genetic test assesses genotypes of 425 different genes. Your genetic test results are analyzed using MyGenes’ scientific algorithm and artificial intelligence technology to design the most accurate nutrition and lifestyle recommendations.
When the nutrition recommendations are followed, it is predicted to reduce total body weight of up to 10% in 3 months and therefore a reduction in body fat mass.
Bye, bye fats. Hello strategic eating.