192.4 (-1.0), Omentum Momentum

Good morning! Dr. Oz was on Oprah yesterday and he reminded me of an important fact -- waist size is more important than what the scale says. Why?

...Sure, you know that fat lives on your hips, but is also lives in your blood. If you were to take a vial of blood and let it sit (we don't recommend doing this at home), you'd see a layer of clotty cream that would rise to the top of the vial, sort of like tiramisu. That's fat. How did it get there? (Half credit if your answer was tiramisu.) It's absorbed via your intestines. But the key player is the omentum. And why should we care about that organ that sounds like it's missing the letter m? Because the omentum can store fat that is quickly accessible to the liver (meaning it can cause lousy cholesterol and triglyceride levels to rise) and also sucks insulin out of circulation (making your blood sugar rise) -- meaning that this cream-converted fat sets up shop in the omentum and puts your organs within very close striking distance of a hammer. See, fat is like real estate: it's all about location, location, location. We all have three kinds of fat: fat in our bloodstream (called triglycerides), subcutaneous fat (which lies just underneath the skin's surface), and that omentum fat. (The fourth fat, of course, is the fat in food.) ...the omentum is a fatty layer of tissue located inside the belly that hangs underneath the muscles in your stomach (it's why some men with beer guts have hard-as-keg bellies -- their fat is underneath the muscle).

Because this omentum fat is so close to your solid organs, it's their best energy source. (Why go to the gas station on the other side of town when there's a station at the next corner?) Think of the omentum fat as the obnoxious eighteen-wheeler on a crowded highway -- elbowing out the stomach, pushing away other organs and claiming all the space for itself.

...In addition, the fat released from the omentum travels to your liver rapidly and constantly as opposed to the more patient fat on your thighs. The processed material is then shipped to the arteries, where it is linked to health risks like high LDL (lousy) cholesterol. The other problem with omentum fat is that it secretes very little adiponectin, which is a stress- and inflamation-reducing chemical that's related to the hunger-controlling hormone leptin. When you have less fat, you secrete more adiponectin, which produces a product that reduced inflammation. But more importantly, higher levels of adiponectin nare related to lower levels of fat. So the more omentum fat you have, the less fat-regulating adiponectin you'll produce. Those who have low levels of adiponectin have abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other risk factors associated with coronary artery disease. (pgs. 101, 102 The Biology of Fat, You On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management, Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD.

Heart Attack Prevention
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Many Americans who were affected by the death of Tim Russert were under the impression that Tim seemed to be in control of his health and was managing his risk factors, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Dr. Oz says. But omentum, or belly fat, is the number one indicator that you are at risk for a heart attack. Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen talk about five steps to losing this belly fat and living a healthier life.

Cut out all added simple sugars. Syrups and any foods that end in -ose should be removed from your diet, Dr. Oz says.

Don't drink too much alcohol. "Alcohol increases the creation of triglycerides (you want that number under 100)," Dr. Oz says. "Plus alcohol is a simple carbohydrate."

Sleep. "When you don't sleep, the part of the brain that craves sleep has to make up for it," Dr. Oz says. "[So] it craves simple carbohydrates."

Manage stress. "Having a waist size more than half of your height is a great example of how you're coping with stress," Dr. Oz says. If your number is more than half, you run into progressive problems, and it also reflects that you're not coping with stress the way you want to.

My own journey:

My height: 5' 3" or 63"

My "safe" waist size: 31 1/2"

My waist size today: 35"

Need to lose: 3.5"

Walk. If you walk at a good pace, you won't get hurt and you'll build up that core muscle that helps you get rid of the belly fat. Dr. Roizen says that walking also decreases insulin resistance. "Insulin is a mailman that takes sugar from your blood stream and puts it inside your cells," he says. "It decreases hunger because the hunger goes away when you get sugar inside the cells."

Dr. Oz on Waist Management

Some notes here: I will be posting my daily WIs here but, due to time constaints, blog posts will continue on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays only.