Blame it on your genes. Research shows that thin Indians with fat paunches are at a higher risk of diabetes and cardiac disease than Europeans.
skinny legs and a bit of a paunch but think that’s okay because your pot belly doesn’t really show with the voluminous shirts and tops you wear, think again.Indians are prone to collecting fat around the abdominal area caused by a biochemical abnormality called the Asian Indian Phenotype. “Indians are referred to as thin-fat because they have lesser amounts of mean muscle mass and tend to add weight to their bellies,” says Dr Jayashree Todkar, bariatric surgeon at LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai.
So, never mind the skinny legs because collecting fat around your abdomen is not a good sign as such fat is deadlier than subcutaneous fat which is distributed evenly below the skin. This is because increased belly flab means increased visceral fat found between the organs. “Visceral fat is more active and drains directly into the liver. Free fatty acids into the liver resist the action of insulin, a hormone that helps absorb the glucose from the blood stream. This causes diabetes,” says Dr Todkar.
According to WHO reports, India is home to over 61 million diabetic patients and is expected to cross the 100 million mark by 2030. Contracting diabetes leads to an elevated risk of a whole lot of other health problems including cardio-vascular diseases and kidney problems.
Fat quotient
Worldwide, Body Mass Index or BMI (see box) is the accepted measure of body health. A BMI of over 25 indicates that you are overweight or obese. But the Asian-Indian Phenotype makes Indians susceptible to diabetes even though their BMI is well within the international limit of 25. Therefore, doctors feel the BMI limit for Indians should be 23 and an Indian with BMI 25 is termed clinically obese.
But Todkar feels we shouldn’t trust BMI alone to assess risk for diabetes. She encourages patients to also count obesity in cms. Waist circumference above 80cm for women and 90cm for men is a matter of grave concern. “It is called metabolic syndrome and its patients at a higher risk of cardiac problems than those who have subcutaneous fat. “
Metabolic syndrome includes low levels of HDL cholesterol (known as the good cholesterol), high triglyceride levels (a type of fat found in the blood) and high blood pressure and is a risk indicator for diabetes and other cardio-vascular diseases.
Metabolic syndrome is what is seen in many average 25-year-old working professionals, says Dr Santosh Kumar Dora, cardiac electrophysiologist, Asian Heart Institute, Bandra.
“We have rich diets, low physical activity, spend all day at work and dismiss a paunch as an aesthetic issue. But it’s more like a warning sign.”
Dora suggests a change of diet to reduce saturated fats, a brisk walk for 45 minutes a day and a background check into your immediate family history for obesity.
Culturally, we associate fat with prosperity, says Dr A Ramachandran, president of the India Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai. This is why most people aren’t too concerned about their paunches. “It was surprising to see the results we got from teenagers we surveyed in urban south India. They showed signs of insulin resistance and abdominal obesity at a young age. We are still looking in to what came first,” says Ramachandran.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/1839563/report-skinny-fat-is-worse-than-just-fat
