May 2008 - Apples and Pears
When I say apples and pears I’m not talking about fruits but body types. For patients who are overweight do you carry most of your weight around your waist (an “apple”) or around your hips (a “pear”)? This is actually important because recent research has shown that not all fat is the same.
It appears that abdominal fat (“apples”) is worse for you than hip and thigh fat (“pears”). Abdominalfat puts a person at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke,high blood pressure, and several types of cancer. As a general rule mentend to have more abdominal fat (the old “beer gut”) and women tend tohave more fat on the hips and thighs. Women however can certainly deposit fat around their belly, particularly after menopause. Heredity (your genes) and a person’s activity level also influence body shape.
The current theory is that abdominal fat is worse for a person’s health because it is metabolically active. Bythis I mean that abdominal fat is not only a way for your body to storeenergy (what fat is normally for) but that abdominal fat cells actuallysecrete hormones and other substances into your bloodstream which aredetrimental to your health. It is felt that these substances may induce a chronic, low level inflammatory state.
How to measure your risk
Tomeasure your waist to hip ratio, first measure your waist at the navel(don’t suck your belly in!) and then measure your hip at the widestpart of your buttocks, then divide the waist by the hip. So for example if a man has 40 inch waist and a 32 inch hips his waist to hip ratio would be 40/32 which is 1.25. A result greater than 1.0 for men and 0.9 for women is considered high risk.
Aneven simpler way to get a sense of the risk is just to measure yourwaist, for men it should be less than 40 and for women it should beless than 35.
There is no way to lose weight just around your belly (or your waist, for that matter). Youneed to lose weight… obviously Bariatric surgery can help with that,and also burn calories with walking and other exercise.
So remember… apples and pears… it’s not just about the fruit!
There will be a support group Wednesday May 21st starting at 6 pm. It is for all patients who had the surgery over one year ago and will be at 200 South Orange Ave (the Ambulatory Care Center) in Livingston, across from the Livingston Mall.
I am adding a new feature to the newsletter which I am calling the century club. It’s a very exclusive club and the only way to get in is to lose 100 lbs! The newest member, who I just saw in the office today, is Marcia Benjamin (congratulations Marcia! She went from 249 to 148). If anybody wants to join the club email me your name and weights and I’ll add you to the roster.
End Quote: (comes to us from one of my childhood favorites)
“You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose
You’re on your own. And you know what you know
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go”
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