The Health Risks of Excessive Belly Fat

Are you concerned about the extra fat you’re carrying around your waistline? You’re not alone, as nearly 75% of Americans are overweight. And the larger your waistline, the greater your risk of developing one or more serious health issues.

Our medical team at Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach, located in Pompano Beach, Florida, can assist. Our experts offer several options to help you shed excess belly fat and reclaim your health, including personalized medical diet plans and targeted fat loss with body contouring and lipo laser. 

We also believe in the power of patient education, so we’ve created this guide explaining why excessive belly fat is dangerous and ways we can help. 

Health risks associated with belly fat

If you’re a woman and your waist measures 35 inches or more, or you’re a man and it measures 40 inches or more, you have dangerous levels of fat around your vital organs. 

Belly fat is either subcutaneous or visceral. Subcutaneous fat is that fat you can pinch, grab, or roll, and it’s stored just under the surface of your skin. Chances are if you’re overweight, you have some subcutaneous belly fat.

The belly fat that’s stored inside your abdominal cavity is called visceral fat. It surrounds your organs, and most people with extra weight around the middle have an excess of this visceral fat. 

Visceral fat is the most dangerous type of belly fat. It significantly increases your risk of developing significant health issues, including:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancer
• Stroke
• Heart disease
• Liver disease
• Metabolic disease
• Alzheimer’s disease
• High cholesterol
• Kidney disease

Researchers believe visceral belly fat increases your body’s production of inflammatory chemicals. As a result, you develop inflammation in your abdominal organs. That leads to the narrowing of your blood vessels, which increases your blood pressure and risk of heart disease. 

Why belly fat is difficult to lose

Belly fat is difficult to lose because it forms because of a combination of lifestyle factors and physical health issues. Here’s a look at the most common reasons people struggle to lose belly fat:

Hormonal imbalances

Hormone imbalances can contribute to weight gain and belly fat. For women, perimenopause or polycystic ovary syndrome can trigger hormone imbalances and an increase in belly fat. For men, low testosterone can play a role in their weight. 

Our Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach team evaluates your health to provide personalized treatment. 

Not enough of the right exercise

If you’re focusing on blasting away belly fat with sit-ups, crunches, or planks, you won’t experience results. To lose excessive belly fat, you must increase the intensity of your exercises. Most people start to shed stubborn tummy fat with moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise for 30-60 minutes daily, five days a week.

Eating too much refined sugar

Refined sugars are one of the fastest ways to add visceral fat. That is because refined sugars are extremely high in calories and offer no nutritional value. If you don’t immediately burn off the calories from sugar, your body stores the unused energy as fat — most often on your abdomen. 

Not getting enough sleep

When you don’t get enough good-quality sleep, your body becomes stressed. That triggers an increase in your body’s production of the stress hormone cortisol, which has been linked to the storage of more visceral fat. 

How we help you reclaim your health

The good news is that by addressing the underlying reasons you have excessive belly fat, you can take action and make steps to reclaim your health. Our providers at Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach offer several solutions, including:

• Personalized diet plans
• Nutritional and exercise counseling
• Weight-loss injections

We support you every step of the way to ensure long-term success. Our team also provides nonsurgical, targeted body sculpting for stubborn pockets of belly fat once you’ve lost excess weight. 

Once you’re near your ideal weight, we help you achieve the silhouette of your dreams with lipo laser, body sculpting with truSculpt iD, Emtone cellulite treatments, and infrared body contouring suits. 

Ready to reclaim your health? Get started by scheduling a consultation online or over the phone with a provider at Physicians WEIGHT LOSS Centers Pompano Beach.