Is all body fat the same?

All body fat is not the same; belly fat (visceral fat) is different and more dangerous than subcutaneous fat found under the skin. Endocrinologist Reza Yavari, MD, explains the difference between the various body fat types.

Transcript

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The fat inside the belly is actually very harmful to the body because it causes inflammation.

00:06

It causes plaque build up in the arteries, and it causes insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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The question is, is all body fat the same in the body? And now we know that the fat inside the belly,

00:28

which we call visceral fat or intra abdominal fat, is different than the fat under the skin.

00:34

The fat inside the belly is part of the endocrine system. It's smaller. It's connected to a lot of blood vessels.

00:42

On the other hand, the fat under the skin is basically just an energy depot, and it doesn't really interact with the body's metabolism.

00:51

The fat inside the belly is actually very harmful to the body because it causes inflammation.

00:57

It causes plaque build up in the arteries, and it causes insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes.

01:03

In addition to the distinction between subcutaneous fat, the fat under the skin, and intra abdominal fat,

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there's also fat in the muscles. In other words, the muscle cells actually have fat droplets in them, and that makes their metabolism

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very sluggish, and those muscles become marbled and very insulin resistant. So with exercise after one week, we

01:30

were able to clear those fat deposits inside the muscle cells, and the muscles become active again. [MUSIC PLAYING]