Can­di­da Khan

We tend to of­ten think of weight as an over­all num­ber and in­di­ca­tor for health. The truth is that BMI is known as body mass in­dex and in­di­cates ap­pro­pri­ate weight for height, but what is your weight made of? We tend not to look at the en­tire pic­ture. A bet­ter mea­sure­ment that can be used to as­sess long-term health is called vis­cer­al fat. Weight is just a num­ber, and so is BMI.

As a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist, I rec­om­mend go­ing deep­er be­cause you can look healthy on the out­side, but what’s hap­pen­ing in­ter­nal­ly can af­fect your risk for di­a­betes, heart dis­ease, high blood pres­sure and oth­er health con­di­tions. BMI doesn’t mea­sure body fat per­cent­age, mus­cle mass, fat dis­tri­b­u­tion or meta­bol­ic health. You can have a nor­mal BMI, but in­ter­nal fat around the or­gans can be high with­out your knowl­edge.

Vis­cer­al fat is stored in­side the ab­domen, around or­gans like the liv­er, pan­creas, and in­testines. This means that even if the scale doesn’t seem alarm­ing, el­e­vat­ed vis­cer­al fat lev­els may still place your health at risk. I rec­om­mend check­ing your vis­cer­al fat with the body com­po­si­tion as­sess­ment scale.

1) Body Weight

2) Body Mass In­dex (BMI)

3) Body Fat Per­cent­age

4) Vis­cer­al Fat Lev­el

5) Skele­tal Mus­cle Mass

6) Mus­cle Per­cent­age

7) Sub­cu­ta­neous Fat

8) Basal Meta­bol­ic Rate (BMR)

9) Meta­bol­ic Age

10) Body Wa­ter Per­cent­age

11) Bone Mass

12) Pro­tein Per­cent­age

13) Fat-Free Body Weight

What in­creas­es vis­cer­al fat grad­u­al­ly over time in­cludes poor lifestyle habits and stress, such as:

A) High­ly processed foods such as fried foods, processed meat, which in­cludes un­healthy fats, sodi­um, and added re­fined sug­ar.

B) Seden­tary lifestyle, which means lit­tle to no phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty or move­ment.

C) Stress caused by un­healthy eat­ing or en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors that can in­crease cor­ti­sol and cause emo­tion­al eat­ing.

D) Poor sleep, which means get­ting 5 or 6 hours, which is less than the rec­om­mend­ed 7 hours con­sis­tent­ly.

The good news is that vis­cer­al fat re­sponds well to healthy lifestyle changes. Foods that help to re­duce or­gan fat in­clude in­creas­ing di­etary fi­bre in­take, good qual­i­ty pro­tein, whole grain foods, and healthy fats, just to name a few.

Un­der­stand­ing your BMI, body com­po­si­tion, and vis­cer­al fat lev­els may be one of the most im­por­tant steps you take to­ward pre­vent­ing chron­ic dis­ease and im­prov­ing your qual­i­ty of life.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD al­so known as Di­di, is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di’s Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy (didis­nu­tri­tion­con­sul­tan­cy.com)