Health Farm

-- Trade in your scales for body fat callipers – because fat around your middle is a better indicator of risks associated with obesity-related health problems than body weight.

That muffin top could be killing you . Research from the University of Iowa shows the dangers of body fat – specifically, that post-menopausal women of NORMAL weight are at increased risk of death from heart disease and cancer if they have excess abdominal fat.

The study analysed the health records of more than 156,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79, looking at body weight and central obesity – that extra bulge of fat around the middle, known as the muffin top – and tallied death from cancer or heart disease.

Specifically, women who weighed in the normal range but carried excess fat around their middles had a 31% higher risk of death over a 20-year period than women of normal weight who weren’t sporting a muffin top.

Body shape matters

Even among people whose weight is within the normal range, body shape matters. Because abdominal fat is stored more deeply, blanketing our organs. Known as visceral fat, it is especially dangerous because these fat cells do more than just sit there – they change the way our bodies operate, increasing insulin resistance, inflammation, and fatty build-up in artery walls. And for women specifically, fighting belly fat can be challenging after menopause when oestrogen levels drop.