
Lose Belly Fat Fast With This Diabetes-Friendly Exercise Routine
Everyone seems to want a slimmer middle, a smaller pant size — you know the drill. But trimming your waistline is about so much more than how you look in the mirror; it’s about improving your insulin sensitivity, glucose levels, and risk for diabetes complications, such as heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
“Current research shows that abdominal fat is a driving factor behind the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, as well as [a factor that affects] how people manage the condition,” explains Margaret Eckert-Norton, PhD, RN, a certified diabetes educator and associate professor of nursing at St. Joseph’s College in New York City.
The Difference Between Visceral Fat and Subcutaneous Fat
Belly fat, also known as abdominal or visceral fat, hangs out in and around your internal organs. It's known to secrete a variety of proteins that trigger inflammation and affect your body’s hormone levels, and it can increase your risk for a variety of conditions (but more on this later). For this reason, some experts actually call it “active fat.” That’s in contrast to subcutaneous fat, which sits directly underneath your skin and pretty much just acts as an energy reserve without strongly influencing health, Dr. Eckert-Norton says.
How Excess Belly Fat Can Increase the Risk of Diabetes Complications
So what are those conditions that belly fat influences? The first and most notable one for anyone with diabetes is insulin resistance, she says. One of the many factors at play is retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), a compound that visceral cells secrete, dull
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