(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to the
first of three deep-dive videos in our series looking
at the DEXA scan metrics of key interest to Peter Attia. Peter is the author of
the bestselling book, "Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity." In this first video, we'll
be looking at visceral fat. In the book, Attia likens a person's normal
subcutaneous fat storage to a bathtub. Our changing level of body fat is like the water level
in the bath, he says, rising and falling, depending on how fast
water flows in from the tap and how quickly it
drains down the plughole. When we eat at maintenance,
calories in equals calories out, our fat and weight stay the same, akin to the water level in
the bath remaining constant because it fills and
empties at the same rate. But it's when the taps are fully opened and the bathtub fills and spills over, that is we eat way more
calories than we burn, that problems arise. When our subcutaneous stores fill up, fat spills over into your muscle tissue, blood, liver, and pancreas, and around your heart and other organs. This excess, overspill fat is linked with what Attia calls The Four Horsemen, heart disease, cancer,
dementia, and diabetes. The fat that accumulates around
your organs is visceral fat, which Attia describes as
anything but harmless. He says our risk from visceral fat is based on our own genetic capacity to store subcutaneous fat. Some people have a bathtub,
some a full-size jacuzzi, others a small bucket. On the Bodyscan DEXA report, your visceral fat result
is shown by the last number in the Adipose Tissue table. Diagnostic thresholds have been applied, such that a measurement below
100 is considered normal, between 100 and 160 is increased risk, and above 160 is high risk. Bodyscan data shows that
visceral fat increases with age, and once you reach the 50th percentile, the average for overall body
fat, visceral fat will double between your 20s and your 50s. Now, being average might sound okay, but in "Outlive," Attia says, "It doesn't
take much visceral fat to cause problems." Even a 40-year-old man
with average total body fat would be considered at
exceptionally high risk for cardiovascular disease
and type 2 diabetes, in the top 5% of risk
for your age and sex. Now, Bodyscan data shows that visceral fat can remain very low regardless of age. At the lowest percentiles, there's little change in the value. In contrast of the highest percentiles, we see visceral fat
climbing higher and higher. For men and women over 50, visceral fat scores are double
those for the under 30s. In all percentiles, women suffer from a faster rate
of increase in visceral fat as they age, particularly after menopause, and at the highest percentiles, women end up with as much
visceral fat or more than men. Now, as well as age, individual
genetics and ethnicity influence how much visceral fat you carry. Here, for example, are
two Bodyscan clients, both in their thirties,
one black, one white, and both with very high body
fat, around 47 kilograms. The Black man has a
visceral fat score of 76, the white man, more than double, at 155. Now, here is a South Asian man with lower total fat, 40
kilograms, but visceral of 194. Here's another South Asian man in his 30s whose total body fat is 18 kilograms, almost 30 kilograms less than the others, but he has the same visceral fat result as the Black man. Bodyscan's observations
tie in with Attia's, who says, "This is a generalization, but people of Asian descent
tend to have much lower capacity to store fat on average than Caucasians." Genetics will affect your fat distribution and therefore how much
visceral fat you have. If your body stores fat in
the upper body, your torso, indicated by high ratios on your report, you have a much greater
chance of high visceral fat. If you carry fat more
in your arms and legs, then your visceral fat will
almost certainly be lower. Because visceral fat is
spillover or excess fat, the simplest way to reduce it is to reduce your overall body fat by restricting calorie intake
and increasing calorie burn. In Attia's analogy,
that's turn the taps down and let the bathtub begin to empty. In general, you lose
visceral fat at a faster rate than overall body fat. Here's a male Bodyscan client age 60 who in just two months cut calories to reduce his body fat by a third and reduced his visceral
fat by half, from 150 to 76. This 45-year-old woman
reduced her body fat by 65% and her visceral fat by 80% from the increased risk threshold
of 100 to a very low 20, all achieved by a very sustainable
400 calorie a day deficit and exercise in exactly one year. As well as creating the deficit
through reduced food intake, physical activity is also effective for reducing visceral fat,
and to a much greater extent than it is for reducing subcutaneous fat. That's because visceral fat
is metabolically active. Conversely, one factor for
increasing visceral fat is inactivity, leading
a sedentary lifestyle. That's because Attia says
one of the first places this spillover fat penetrates
is your muscle tissue, contributing directly to insulin
resistance in the muscle. So, if a person is not physically active, if they're not consuming
energy via their muscles, this insulin resistance
driven by fat spillover develops much more quickly. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, more fat makes us less active,
meaning more fat spillover, leading to more visceral fat. So in summary, visceral fat is a result of excess body fat spilling
over from subcutaneous stores into muscle fibers, your liver,
pancreas and bloodstream, and accumulating around
other vital organs. Visceral fat is worthy of the name bad fat because of its strong links
with heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic dysfunction. The simplest way to reduce visceral fat and improve lifespan and healthspan is to reduce overall body fat through calorie restriction
and increased exercise. Now, finally, if you're concerned about your own visceral fat or any of Peter Attia's
other longevity metrics, book a DEXA scan at Bodyscan. We hope to see you soon. (upbeat music)
