Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. DEXA is a great tool for assessing visceral fat even if it can vary by 200g every time it runs. The visceral fat by age chart had a range of 200g to 5000g. Surely we can learn something about status and progression even with a bit of uncertainty. Besides, how else can you evaluate visceral fat without spending 000’s?
Dr Vyvyane Loh said VAT area was the more important metric (research / data?) and to aim for 70-80 cm2. I was at 88 last June. I don’t know the error bar range on VAT area.
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RPS
#104
Given it is worthwhile to give the body a week off from training for recovery, once every three months, timing that with your FMD (or 2-3 day fast) I think is a good strategy.
As for fat percentages, if you are as low as you can comfortably be from sensible eating then just think of any fat round the organs as protection for them from any body blows that you might take - isn’t that why evolution determined that we should accumulate a little bit in those areas.
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After thinking about this a bit more, I’ll bet that VAT “Area” is used in medicine because it is more reliable / stable. VAT volume and mass calculations would have to be based on assumptions since the scan is 2 dimensional.
Does anyone here know about how these VAT numbers are generated?
I agree. While I don’t like the idea of padding my organs, I do agree that I should use these infrequent low calorie periods to reduce my exercise intensity. Muscle can be maintained with far less stress than required to build muscle.
It also would be useful in breaking physical activity addictions that have become excessive.
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Had another Dexa today with the same results for visceral fat with 1lb less body fat. I guess it’s not a fluke and better than Bryan Johnson’s 0.7 in^3!
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A Reminder of the Harms Done by Excess Visceral Fat Tissue
Being overweight correlates with an increased risk of age-related disease and mortality in later life. The greater the excess weight, the greater the risk. A sizable fraction of this risk appears to be mediated by the metabolic activity of visceral fat cells, which promote chronic inflammation through a range of mechanisms. These include an increased burden of cellular senescence, visceral fat cells mimicking the signaling associated with infected cells, and an greater amount of debris from dying and dead cells that provokes a maladaptive inflammatory response from immune cells. Chronic inflammation is characteristic of aging, and is disruptive to tissue structure and function.
Body fat distribution in women changes as menopause progresses and estrogen levels decrease, causing the adipose tissue concentrated in the hips and thighs to gradually shift to the midsection as harmful visceral fat. This predisposes women to low-grade inflammation and cardiovascular diseases, which increase significantly after menopause. A study investigated the connection between health behaviours and low-grade inflammation. Health behaviours in this study include sleeping, eating and physical activity, and related disorders.
“In line with previous studies, a higher amount of visceral fat was, as expected, associated with low-grade inflammation. Visceral fat accumulated in the midsection secretes cytokines that increase inflammation, and this can increase the risk of metabolic diseases.” The results show that those individuals who exhibit more disordered eating behaviour, as well as those who were physically less active, had more visceral fat, and thus the risk of low-grade inflammation was also higher. When eating and physical activity behaviours were examined together, higher physical activity was associated with lower visceral fat, especially in those women who did not display disordered eating behaviour.
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LaraPo
#109
Wondering why having huge amounts of adipose tissue in the hips, thighs and buttocks is so widely promoted in our culture. Is it a predisposition toward self-destructive tendencies?
Interesting… Can’t you gage it by the way you look? For example, your still look the same, but you stomach circumference has increased.
