We have all heard about body fat and how bad it can be for our health, but what are the ins-and-outs of it?

Dr Charlotte Norton, Medical Director of The Slimming Clinic, explores the subject and tells us, body fat isn’t all as bad as it seems!

What is body fat?

Body fat, or adipose tissue, is an important body tissue as it is the main storage site for excess dietary energy that we take in when we take on more calories than our body needs.

What does body fat do?

Your body fat stores energy in the form of triglycerides which can be released into the blood stream when energy levels are low and the body signals to release energy from fat stores.

This is what we aim to achieve when we are trying to lose weight and fat mass on a weight loss diet.

However, body fat is not simply an energy storage tissue, it has several other important roles:

It makes the male and female sex hormones, androgens and oestrogens
Releases inflammatory and pro-inflammatory signalling hormones
Releases leptin, a hormone that signals to the brain to reduce hunger
Helps to protect and cushion our vital body organs
Helps us maintain our body temperature

Therefore, body fat is an important tissue and having a normal amount of body fat is vital to health and body function.

Are there different types of body fat?

Body fat can either be stored under the skin called subcutaneous fat or centrally around the abdominal organs called visceral fat.

For individuals with a normal BMI approximately 80% of body fat is stored subcutaneously and 5-20% stored viscerally.

Medical studies have demonstrated that individuals who have a high level of visceral fat or central fat around the abdomen have a greater risk of developing health issues related to weight.

Measuring your waist circumference and waist to hip ratio can help you work out if you have a raised amount of central body fat.

For females, a raised waist circumference is >80cm (31.5in).
For males, a raised waist circumference is >94cm (37in).

To work out your waist to hip ratio, you simply need to measure your waist (just above the belly button) and your hips (at the widest point of your buttocks) and then divide the waist measurement by the hip measurement.

For females, a raised waist to hip ratio is >0.85.
For males, a raised waist to hip ratio is >1.00.

When does body fat become an issue?

As mentioned earlier, having body fat in the right proportion is important to proper body function.

Doctors and health professionals worry about patients who accumulate too much body fat as it can lead to the development of other health issues over time.

As body fat accumulates, the pro-inflammatory signalling hormones can begin to rise causing low-levels of inflammation in the body and can begin to alter the normal production of hormones that fat tissues make.

This low-level of inflammation can lead to the development of health conditions such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

How can I lose body fat?

When most people say that they want to lose weight, the weight they in fact want to lose is that related to body fat. Not many of us want to lose weight from our muscle or bone mass!

To lose body fat, you need to create an energy deficit in the body, which will signal to fat stores to release their energy for us to use in our daily activity. This will deplete and shrink the fat stores over time.

We can create an energy deficit in the body but reducing the number of calories we take in from food and using more calories each day in the activity we do.

In order to make sure our bodies utilise our fat stores when we create an energy deficit, it is important we eat a well balanced diet of including whole grain carbohydrates and protein so that our bodies do not break down muscle stores instead of fat stores. You can talk more about this with your Slimming Clinic doctor.

If you want more information about how to reduce your body fat, or the best weight loss diet to get rid of body fat, get in touch with The Slimming Clinic.

Our weight loss doctors can work with you to lose weight and look more into where your fat is stored on your body, based on your body shape.