Being overweight and especially too much belly fat is bad for your health. Nutritionist Matthias Riedl explains which fat is particularly harmful and how you can get rid of it.
Only very few people know that the fatty tissue in the middle of the abdomen forms its own organ. But the experts are now largely in agreement. Because: Belly fat produces countless messenger substances – and thus influences processes throughout the body.
For example, some of these hormones fuel chronic inflammatory responses. These in turn promote the development of diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure. They also accelerate the aging of our vascular system and thus increase the risk of hardening of the arteries and the subsequent heart attack. Chronic inflammation also likely plays a role in the development of cancer.
Matthias Riedl is a nutritionist, diabetologist and medical director of medicum Hamburg, Germany’s largest specialist practice in nutritional medicine. As a board member of the Association of German Nutritionists (BDEM), he is committed to education on the subject of nutrition. Above all, he wants to support people who are no longer helped by conventional medicine. Here you can read an excerpt from his book “The Ultimate Slimming Code”.
However, not all fat is the same: scientists distinguish between white, brown and beige fatty tissue. While the white fat primarily stores energy, brown and beige fat converts excess nutrients into heat. The problem: the vast majority of obesity patients grow white adipose tissue. Another difficulty lies in the fact that one of the messenger substances formed in abdominal fat is the satiety hormone leptin.
“The Ultimate Slimming Code” by Matthias Riedl, published by GU-Verlag
This is made by adipocytes, special cells that store fat. Since people with pronounced abdominal fat have a large number of adipocytes, the leptin concentration in their blood is always comparatively high. Over time, this develops a resistance to the messenger substance: the brain no longer reacts sufficiently strongly to the hormone – and the satiety signals that are normally sent are sometimes absent.
This explains why obese people often feel hungry even when they have eaten enough – while lean people are actually full after a normal portion.
Belly fat is the only organ that would be fine if we didn’t have it. For this reason, overweight people should try everything to reduce it. An adapted diet and two other strategies can help:
Exercise not only makes our muscles – as the opponent of abdominal fat – a real slimming powerhouse, it also improves the interaction of the hunger and satiety hormones ghrelin and leptin, which has become out of sync in overweight people. According to a study, just half an hour of brisk walking a day helps to eliminate leptin resistance and other disturbances in the control loop.
In addition, the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin is slowed down during sport. This is one reason why you should eat a meal relatively quickly after training sessions. Because the feeling of hunger is then there, but still comparatively weak – we feel full more quickly.
Researchers have discovered that a specific protein – Asc-1 – suppresses the formation of healthy brown fat. It is found, among other things, in mature fat cells. If this process could be actively slowed down, it could encourage the body to produce more beneficial fat tissue – and thus avoid some of the harmful metabolic consequences of obesity.
The intestinal hormone secretin can apparently also activate brown adipose tissue in a very similar way. In addition, the substance – in mice in animal experiments – triggers feelings of satiety. This messenger substance could therefore represent another therapy option for obesity patients in the future. Until then, however, obese people must use other strategies to activate and increase existing beneficial fatty tissue and in this way burn more excess energy and shed pounds.
Especially helpful: cold! When we freeze, our beige fatty tissue comes into play, which then functions as a kind of endogenous heating system. Cold showers are therefore ideal as a metabolism quickie, temperatures below 19 degrees in the living room and bedroom are suitable for long distances. A study showed that people who were exposed to such a cool environment for more than two hours a day for several weeks showed increased energy consumption.
Beige fat can also be activated with the help of diet – for example via capsaicinoids, the healthy stimulants of chili. It is still unclear how many additional calories a pronounced and active beige fatty tissue can burn: the study results vary between a meager 30 and a lavish 500.
However, one thing is certain: it would definitely be healthy to implement the recommendations for more beige fatty tissue in everyday life. Because they not only increase energy consumption, but also regulate blood sugar.
These five organs have no direct influence on processes responsible for excess on the ribs – which is why we can’t turn them into slimming powerhouses. Why do I still want to go into them briefly at this point? Because being overweight and eating the wrong foods naturally also have negative consequences for these important organs!
Heart, lungs, kidneys, gallbladder and skin are one thing above all else – victims. For the most part, they suffer silently, so we only look at them when the symptoms are clear – and the situation is already dire. So if you look at the effects of being overweight on these organs, you can indirectly make losing weight easier. Because a close look at them allows us to understand once again what an enormous service the organs perform: They groan under the consequences of being overweight and still continue to work as best they can – without ever being able to do anything about the cause of the agony .
We, on the other hand, can become active and help the victim organs! This realization, which I experience again and again, gives many obesity patients new motivation to really change their diet.
For a long time, the assumption was that a little too much on the ribs is good for the heart. In the meantime, however, the study behind this so-called “obesity paradox” has been refuted by many other studies. For example, scientists from the University of Glasgow examined data from almost 300,000 people of European origin – over several years. It turned out that the risk of a heart attack increased both in subjects with a too low BMI (less than 18.5) and in those with a too high value (from 25). People with a BMI between 22 and 23 had the lowest risk.
In terms of waist circumference, a range between 74 and 83 centimeters was the best. In women, the risk of cardiovascular disease increased by 10 percent for every 12.6 centimeters added, and in men by 16 percent for every additional 11.4 centimeters. So every pound too much damages the heart!
It’s easy to explain why: On the one hand, the organ has to do up to 50 percent more work to supply the larger body mass with blood and oxygen. On the other hand, overweight people often have elevated blood lipids and suffer from secondary diseases such as diabetes. All of this promotes calcification of the blood vessels (arteriosclerosis) – and thus increases the risk of coronary heart disease, the basic problem behind the heart attack.
In addition, the larger body mass, fat stored in the heart and possible high blood pressure contribute to the fact that the heart muscle loses its ability to function – which means that we develop heart failure faster and earlier.
If you carry around too much belly fat, you have an excessively large number of unfavorable peptide hormones in your blood, such as adiponectin. These can lead to chronic inflammation and oxidative cell stress, as well as having a negative impact on lipid metabolism and increasing insulin levels. In the long run, all of this together damages the kidney corpuscles (glomeruli), the smallest filter units of the kidneys – which means that the function of the organs decreases.
In addition, the blood pressure, which is often high in overweight people, puts a strain on the fine blood vessels in the kidneys. Since these organs suffer particularly quietly, damage usually only becomes apparent at a very late stage and is sometimes only noticed by chance. The problems are often so extensive that artificial blood washing (“dialysis”) is necessary, which takes over the cleaning function of the kidneys and also filters the blood.
Obese people get out of breath more quickly – for several reasons. On the one hand, the large fat deposits on the chest and abdomen take up a lot of space in the body, thus reducing the volume of the lungs and making breathing more difficult. At the same time, overweight people carry around more tissue that needs to be supplied with blood – and therefore have an increased need for oxygen. Your lungs therefore have to work much harder than those of people of normal weight.
And finally: The significantly increased tendency to chronic inflammatory processes ensures that the performance of the lung tissue and the bronchi is reduced. This explains why people with a BMI of more than 30, for example, have an up to 100 percent increased risk of severe courses of Covid-19 disease – and need artificial ventilation much more often (and are also more likely to die from the disease).
Another cause is the dreaded so-called “cytokine storm”, which affects overweight people more often: experts use this to describe the invasion of inflammatory substances into the lung tissue. The already overactivated defense system of those affected by obesity then gets out of control and no longer only fights the harmful viruses, but also the healthy cells of the organ itself. This collateral damage often ends in death.
The gallbladder thickens and stores the bile produced by the liver – so that there is enough of the digestive aid available when fat has to be processed in the intestine. A very high-fat diet, in which this nutrient mainly comes from unfavorable sources such as sausage, meat and convenience products, is particularly stressful for the gallbladder. Since overweight people consume such products comparatively often, they have an increased risk of gallstones.
In addition, frequent weight gain and weight increases the likelihood of developing gallbladder and bile duct cancer. Although these tumors are rare, since they are often discovered late, the chance of recovery is usually poor.
In contrast to most other organs, the negative consequences of being overweight on the skin cannot be overlooked: three out of four obese patients suffer from corresponding symptoms. Inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis (psoriasis vulgaris) and rosacea are typical.
The skin damage is mainly due to increased inflammation values and disturbances in the metabolism and hormone balance, such as an increased insulin level. What is so problematic and literally unsightly: because all of this often comes together in obese patients, these skin diseases are often much more severe in them than in people of normal weight.
Every pound less on the ribs can significantly reduce the negative effects described. Even with a five percent weight loss, the metabolic status of obese patients improves significantly: blood pressure drops, which relieves the heart muscle. The proportion of bad blood fats is reduced and thus slows down arteriosclerosis.
Chronic inflammation and cell stress decrease as a result of the decreasing abdominal fat: This not only helps the kidney corpuscles, but also reduces skin irritations. In addition, the diaphragm then has more space, which deepens abdominal breathing. As a result, the lungs are better ventilated – and the oxygen saturation of the blood increases.
Those who rely on the concept of species-appropriate nutrition support the organs twice over. Because this guarantees – with reduced energy intake – an even weight loss and also relieves the whole body. For example, the recommended snack-free times between meals allow the gallbladder to rest. In addition, the organs are supplied with everything they need for their work: This noticeably improves physical and mental well-being!
