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sarcopenia, visceral fat
I was very intrigued by a video I watched this week by Dr. Sean O'Mara. I wonder if this might be something we need to directly address BESIDES cutting back on VA.
Perhaps the formation of the visceral fat happens during high VA, and perhaps high VA happens because of some of the nutritional problems of eating empty foods.
This doctor takes a very strict stance on reducing visceral fat, and has found that certain methodologies help such as:
- the right kind of exercise (sprint type)
- getting rid of empty foods
- reducing alcohol
- reducing stress
- getting good sleep
- good flora
- sunshine
- sauna
None of these are a surprise, but they are supplemental to lowering VA.
"It is little known but very very harmful condition called sarcopenia or atrophy. You can think of it as “muscle wasting”. It is associated w/ aging & corresponds to health. The less healthy (less optimized) you are the more sarcopenia you experience & it can begin in your 20’s. The healthiest adults have much less than their unhealthy counterparts. The diagram on the left shows sarcopenia setting in. The hunched over figure shows a protruding abdomen (small “pot belly”) present which will worsen over time. The more erect standing figure has less or none. Sarcopenia effects posture by the loss of muscle mass and
Perhaps the body creates this visceral fat in which to store excesses of VA.
Oh that’s so interesting, @lil-chick! I recently learned about “smart scales” that can measure you lean body mass and visceral fat at home, but they are quite expensive. A do-it-yourself measurement is a cool way to test it!
I think that Jiri has said the words "skinny fat" a few times, and I think this could apply to the doc's before and after picture. Before, when Jiri used to say it, I couldn't really visualize what he meant by it. We all have fat below the surface of the skin, but visceral fat is different than that. It's inside the "bag" of the abdomen, and the doc thinks it has no real value.
He relates the amount of visceral fat to the amount of inflammation and sarcopenia and other problems. Whenever I hear docs talk "inflammation" I now think VA!
I think the doc also said that sometimes visceral fat marbles inside the muscles too. I watched the original video on high speed, skimming somewhat, because it is extremely long. Another interesting point is that this isn't necessarily just about the elderly.
Another thing that changed greatly was his face.
As a person who is not in the market for a new guru or special diet, I only intend to swerve and not go crazy. But here are my plans. One thing that is hard to do is to pinpoint what junk food is. But...
I've decided to stop snacking. Nothing good happens at snack time! For me this means dropping my mid-morning coffee/muffin and my 4 o'clock wine and pretzel party LOL. I'm going to try to cut back my alcohol in general, though I intend to sip a little wine with dinner, sigh, impossible for me to contemplate wine going to zero hahaha. Maybe half the intake of wine.
I'm still going to eat 3 normal low-VA square meals. (don't intend to fast or be low carb) Have gone back to making my own simple, organic bread (no-knead, 3 day). I'm going to try to incorporate more legumes and also El piqued my interest with those foods that are supposed to help with the detox enzymes (pear, sweet lime, lemon, orange, coconut water, cucumber, asparagus, cheese, nuts, green and black tea, sparkling water, beef). https://ggenereux.blog/discussion/topic/influence-of-food-on-adh-and-aldh-activity/?part=3. I also love Inger's idea of hot water to drink to help digestion.
I'm going to try to get to bed each night by 10:00, and doing whatever I can before bed to ensure good sleep (which is an issue for me).
I've started sprinting (to all: warm up first! start slow! don't hurt yourself.) and riding my bike up a big hill. I've been riding on the flat for a few months, so I'm not starting at zero fitness-wise.
@lil-chick I know what you mean. but this is description of this term.. It has nothing to do with visceral fat..
"The term skinny fat or normal weight obesity (NWO) refers to a person who is normal or below normal weight but has a higher than optimal body fat percentage and often lower than optimal lean body mass. A person with a skinny fat body type can have very high amounts of body fat as compared to a lean body mass."
Skinny fat people are simply people who are not obese in terms of BMI, but because they have lower % of muscle mass and higher % of fat they are "skinny fat". Mostly inactive sedentary people who are not doing any physical activity. People who don't do any sports and don't have physical job.. There is so much people in western world who are not doing anything with their body. Maybe some walking from home to car, from car to shop or work, but that's it.. Horrible for health and longevity. Can't imagine living like that..
Well, the doc WAS actually doing exercise, he was a distance runner. In fact, he isn't the only example on his site of people who do "distance" type exercise and end up with visceral fat anyways. That left hand body is not a sedentary body. But obviously the right hand body looks more like you'd imagine an athlete to look. I wonder if he had high body fat percentage in the left hand pic, despite his running.