LenDentonThrive Letter #24

The Dangers of Excess Belly Fat

Author

Len Denton
October 14, 2023

Reading time: approx: 9 minutes

LenDentonThrive Letter #24

The Dangers of Excess Belly Fat

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter! My mission is to help Over-50 Guys lose weight, get fit, and stay fit for life!

If you’re an Over-50 Guy who’s carrying a few extra pounds and inches around your waist, you’re going to want to check out this edition.

Here’s a quick preview of what’s in the LenDentonThrive Letter #24:

  • The Big Idea - This week, we’re talking about the dangers of excess belly fat!

  • Tip of the Week - A quick tip or strategy to help you improve your health, fitness, and life.

  • News You Can Use - I’ll share two or three useful items from my reading stack for you to check out later.

I’m glad that you’re here! We have a lot to cover in ten minutes or less, so let’s get started!

1. The Big Idea - The Dangers of Excess Body Fat

If you’re a professional Sumo wrestler or an NFL offensive lineman, having some excess bulk around your waist can be useful. But, if you’re an Over-50 Guy who is not employed in either of these sports, then carrying excess belly fat can be a major health risk for you.

Why Belly Fat is So Risky

Fat located around the abdomen, particularly visceral fat surrounding the liver and internal organs, is highly inflammatory and metabolically disruptive. It releases inflammatory molecules that can contribute to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Research has also shown that abdominal obesity is strongly associated with cardiovascular risk factors such as increased blood pressure and elevated blood triglyceride levels, which ultimately result in cardiovascular disease. It has even been linked to diabetes, dementia, asthma, and some cancers!

With these kinds of findings, it’s no surprise that excess belly fat is associated with an overall higher risk of early death. (Note 1) Furthermore, studies indicate that the presence of visceral fat is a significantly bigger risk to men than merely being overweight in general. Men with excess belly fat were associated with higher mortality than those who were generally overweight. (Note 2)

So, being overweight in general is a risk factor for Over-50 Guys, but carrying excess belly fat is a significantly higher risk factor!

Measuring Belly Fat

There are two common ways that are used to measure belly fat. These are waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio (also called WHR).

WHR is the simple ratio of waist circumference divided by hip circumference. WHR is the most accurate measure and appears to be the approach most noted in the research literature.

Calculating WHR is simple, as shown below:

Waist-to-Hip Ratio = Waist size (inches) / Hip size (inches)

For example, if your waist size is 40 inches and your hip size is 39 inches, your WHR is calculated as follows:

WHR = waist size (40-inches) / hip size (39-inches)

WHR = 1.03

The following WHR ranges have been set to determine belly fat health risks:

 Health Risk WHR 

LOW: 0.95 or lower

MODERATE: 0.96 - 1.0

HIGH: 1.0 or higher

(Note: these are men’s WHR ranges only.)

So, using the example noted above, the 1.03 WHR is considered to be a High health risk. Unfortunately, this also carries a higher risk of All-Cause Mortality (ACM), meaning dying for any reason.

As you can see from the example above, WHR is easy to check at home. All you need is a measuring tape and some simple math. You can also use an online WHR calculator such as this one:

Because of the health risks posed by excess belly fat, I suggest that all Over-50 Guys check their own belly fat situation using WHR to see where they stand. And, if you find that your WHR is in the Moderate-to-High range, then take action to fix the problem. We’ll address that next.

What To Do About Excess Belly Fat

If you find that you have a WHR in the MODERATE or HIGH range, I suggest the following 3 actions:

Step 1: Take action!

Decide to do something about this. While excess belly fat probably isn’t going to cause you to die in the next month or year, it is certainly going to rob you of precious years of your future. And, it definitely will reduce your health span, those healthy years of enjoying life in the future. Remember that health is your first wealth. So, decide to take action, then do it!

Step 2: Begin to eat smarter!

The battle to lose weight and belly fat is won in the kitchen! It's all about the food choices we make on a daily basis.

Most Over-50 Guys are consumers of the Standard American Diet, which I call the SAD. It’s SAD because it’s filled with hidden sugars and unhealthy fats. After years of research, we now know that eating the Standard American Diet leads to Standard American Diseases like heart disease (the #1 killer of American men) and diabetes!

Eating smarter is a simple step-by-step process to eliminate the harmful foods from your daily meal choices and replace them with healthy, nutrient-dense whole-food alternatives. You can start by eliminating foods that contain any of these six harmful Red Zone ingredients from your daily nutrition routine:

  • Sugar

  • White Flour

  • White Rice

  • White Potatoes

  • Corn

  • High Fructose Corn Syrup

Don’t worry about cutting calories at this point. Just replace these Red Zone items with healthier choices like meats (lean beef, poultry, fish) green veggies and whole grains. You can read more about eating smarter here.

Step 3: Start Moving!

Once you’ve begun to bring your daily nutrition under control, it's time to begin a program of moderate exercise. Research has shown that one of the best forms of exercise for fat burning is brisk walking. Walking at a pace that brings your heart rate to 50-65% of your maximum rate is considered your body’s maximum fat-burning zone. It’s a more effective way to burn fat than jogging or lifting weights. It’s also an easy way to get started with exercises if you haven’t been actively exercising in the past. Learn more about the power of walking for fat loss here.

Here’s a quick note of caution. Avoid the suggested exercises that specifically target belly fat. There is no science behind specifically burning belly fat. Your body burns fat overall, not in a targeted way. To reduce belly fat, you have to reduce body fat overall.

My Belly Fat Story

Ten years ago, I was 70 pounds heavier than I am today. My waist-to-hip ratio was well above 1.0. My cholesterol was through the roof! Plus, my family has a pretty ugly history with heart disease. I was well on my way to becoming another cardiac statistic!

But, I was able to change all of that. I lost those 70 pounds in 7 months. And now 10 years later, I’m leaner and healthier at 65 than I was at 45!

Today, my WHR is 0.91!

How did that happen?

I followed the same 3 steps I noted above:

  1. I decided to take charge and make a change

  2. I changed my diet by getting rid of those six Red Zone foods

  3. I started walking.

I’m still doing these 3 things today. I plan on doing these 3 things for the next 10 years, and hopefully, well beyond.

This simple 3-step approach worked for me. And, it can work for you, too!

In Closing

I write this newsletter hoping to make a positive impact on the lives of Over-50 Guys and the families they are caring for.

If your WHR is pointing you in the wrong direction, I hope you’ll take a moment to consider what I wrote here today. If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to me by direct message on X(Twitter) or Facebook.

Notes:

Want to Go Deeper?

Do you want to dive deeper into ThriveAge and what it can do in your life? If that sounds like a smart move for you, then consider subscribing to the LenDentonThrive Letter. It’s totally free!

As a bonus, new subscribers will receive a free .pdf version of Chapter 1 of my upcoming new book, The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life).

ThriveAge is the roadmap to your custom-built ThriveLife!

2. Tip of the Week: If Sitting is the New Smoking…Then, Let’s Get Moving!

Sitting has been declared to be the new smoking.

But, what exactly does that mean?

Basically, it means that persistent sitting is statistically as unhealthy for you as smoking is! For many Over-50 Guys, our work environments require many hours of sitting every day. Then, many of us go home and sit down to hours of TV. Sitting has become a national epidemic.

(Note: I’m writing this as I sit at my desk. And, I’ll bet you’re reading it as you are sitting, too.)

The bottom line: Too much sitting during the day is unhealthy for us!

My antidote to too much sitting is to MOVE…HOURLY!

Starting at 6 AM every day, I set a reminder to walk 200 to 300 steps every hour. I repeat this until 8 PM (14 hours daily). You can set this up using your smartphone’s calendar or your fitness tracker. (My Fitbit has a nifty feature to remind me to walk every hour.)

There are several benefits to my little hourly walks:

  • It helps me to overcome the negative aspects of sitting

  • It adds steps to my daily cumulative step goal

  • It provides a brief mental break that refreshes my thinking

  • It helps me to keep my energy levels up

If you’re in a situation where you are sitting for a prolonged period during the day, try adding these hourly mini-walks to your routine.

3. News You Can Use

Here is some “news you can use” from my research and socials:

  1. Ranking Artificial Sweeteners from Best to Worst: this article from Health.com ranks ten of the most popular artificial sweeteners from best to worst. If you’re working to eat smarter by eliminating sugar, it pays to know about these artificial sweeteners:

    https://www.health.com/best-and-worst-artificial-sweeteners-7974926

  2. Here’s a recent post from my X (Twitter) account with a quick lesson on eating smarter:

Follow me on the socials for daily tips and strategies for living your ThriveLife:

I’m Writing A Book!

I’m a busy Over-50 Guy who has spent the past ten years building a practice of personal health and fitness that relies on real food and smart exercise instead of crazy diets and killer workouts. This process, called ThriveAge, helped me to lose 70 pounds and keep it off for going on ten years. Now, I want to share what I have learned with other Over-50 Guys. So, I wrote the book!

In The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life), I share everything I’ve learned about the principles and practices necessary to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle. I call it my ThriveLife.

New subscribers to the LenDentonThrive Letter will receive Chapter 1 of my new book for free. To get your free copy of Chapter 1, just subscribe to the LenDentonThrive Letter.

Thanks for your time and attention. Have a great weekend. See you next Saturday!

Thrive & Prosper,

Len

Hey, Before You Go…

First, are you a subscriber to the LenDentonThrive Letter? Please share this with someone you know who might benefit from it. I’d appreciate that! And, I bet the guy you forward it to will too!

Second, did someone forward you this copy of the LenDentonThrive Letter?

You can get your own free copy by subscribing today. And, I’ll throw in Chapter 1 of my upcoming new book as a bonus.

Thanks for visiting!

See you next weekend!

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