[reissbaker]

This is quite important news as visceral fat is actually the most dangerous kind of fat: even in lean adults, those with higher amounts of visceral fat are much more at risk for metabolic disorders and insulin resistance [1]. And you often can't tell if you have visceral fat by looking, since it's deep under your belly muscles, and a seemingly-skinny person can have unhealthy amounts of visceral fat. [2] If Ozempic is specifically increasing the metabolic rate of visceral fat beyond simply making caloric restriction easy (which it also does), that implies a pretty broad range of health improvements beyond just simple weight loss — especially since previous treatments were unable to target visceral fat preferentially to subcutaneous fat, despite visceral fat being more dangerous. [3]

1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC419497/

2: https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-is-visceral-fat

3: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28148928/

[refurb]

Indeed.

Take a country like Singapore where obesity rates are low (11%) but type 2 diabetes rates are high (9%).

Compare that with the US with much higher obesity rates (40%+) but only slightly higher type 2 diabetes rates (11%).

Plenty of skinny fat older men in Singapore. Slightly overweight but it’s all visceral fat.

[tordrt]

Genetic predisposition is likely also involved here? Why would Singaporeans develop same or higher levels of visceral fat than americans that are more obese than them?

[pajko]

https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/the-skinny-on-trans-fa...

As a result, trans fats have been banned in Singapore not long ago: https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/ban-on-trans-...

[refurb]

Yup. Type 2 diabetes rates are far higher in East Asian populations than caucasians.

They start to show metabolic disorders at far lower levels of visceral fat. South Asians are similar.

[2-3-7-43-1807]

first of all visceral fat isn't bad ... it serves a physiological purpose of padding organs and providing a close by source of energy. that's why it exists. it becomes a problem if excessive. now ozempic is "burning" it directly - where can i place my bet that this is just going to burn the candle from the other end?

[twelve40]

i'm really curious, "burn the candle from the other end" sounds pretty negative, what are the downsides of burning excessive visceral fat? Non-excessive sounds irrelevant because it's really hard to imagine a healthy person paying for this.

[2-3-7-43-1807]

to remove something excessive is by definition unlikely to cause harm. but how does ozempic know what is excessive and what is not? i'd expect it to disturb the physiological function of visceral fat after a certain unknown point. given that it is very difficult to measure visceral fat i'd assume that it would be even with involvement of medical specialists difficult to not overdo it.

[acchow]

Is visceral fat causal of those other health issues? Or coincident?

[espoal]

Intermediate causal step. A bad diet (high glycemic diet) will increase insuline response, whose efficacy will be down regulated through several mechanisms, including accumulation of fat around our internal organs, which in turn further increase insuline resistance.

[lambdaba]

When mitochondria don't function properly, organs can't efficiently metabolize energy, which can contribute to fat accumulation, including around the organs.

[reacharavindh]

Asking as a commoner without medical background. What is a effective method to measure visceral fat?

[jdietrich]

It can be reasonably accurately measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. A number of companies offer these scans at a reasonable cost.

For screening, waist-to-hip and waist-to-height ratios are reasonably reliable.

[toomuchtodo]

The colloquial term for this a DEXA scan for those seeking one.

[toxik]

Measure waist circumference over time.