Ab Flab Is a Burden to Health

I do not have a potbelly. That soft orb of flesh forming under my belt buckle? It’s really more the size of a small saucepan, or casserole dish. But it’s no pot. And it won’t become one if I can help it. My wardrobe has suffered enough. About a year ago, I realized I own half a dozen pairs of worthless pants. Oh, I can still squeeze into them. It’s just that when I do, sitting down or exhaling are both out of the question.

Of course, lots of men struggle with girth control as they creep toward middle age. We use endearing nicknames for our expanding waistlines, like “spare tire,” “love handles” or “that 15-pound bowling ball I swallowed.” Well, joke all you want, but take note: Your doctor isn’t amused.

Potbellies are more than unsightly--they’re unhealthy too. The National Institute on Aging has funded several studies that prove the perils of a flabby midsection. Most recently, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, led by epidemiologist Kimberly Sutton-Tyrrell, studied more than 2,000 adults to identify the leading causes of hardened arteries, which can result in heart attacks and strokes. They found that people who have a lot of abdominal fat--especially men--also tended to have stiff arteries. The dreaded “apple” shape ranked as a bigger cause of hardened arteries than did smoking, cholesterol and even overall weight (which means that thin guys who get paunchy increase their risk of cardiovascular disease). According to the Pittsburgh study, only age and high-blood pressure increase arterial stiffness more than a potbelly.

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Why is abdominal fat so rough on your arteries? No one is sure, but according to Sutton-Tyrrell it may be that when your body metabolizes ab fat, large amounts of free fatty acids are released into your system. Your liver reacts to this onslaught by reducing the amount of insulin it takes out of circulation. Insulin is an important hormone, but having too much floating around inside you is bad news. For one thing, a high insulin level keeps your heart beating hard.

“That puts your cardiovascular system through unnecessary wear and tear,” Sutton-Tyrrell says. All that pounding eventually harms your arteries in a way that makes them stiffen, which can cause deadly blockages. What’s more, potbellied people also have a greater risk for diabetes mellitus, probably because their bodies lose the ability to use insulin efficiently.

Unfortunately, quick fixes for bloated bellies don’t help much. Liposuction can remove small amounts of fat that lie just beneath the skin, but not the deeper deposits that cause disease, so fat-sucking surgery won’t reduce your risk, Sutton-Tyrrell says. And think twice before dialing that 800 number to order your very own Ab Cruncher 2000. There are countless exercise gizmos on the market that promise to transform a pillow-soft midsection into a steel washboard, but you probably don’t need one. Researchers from Cal State Northridge found that people who use machines to perform abdominal exercises get the same result as people who simply plop down on a mat and crunch away.

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Besides, although strengthening your abs improves posture and supports your spine, you need to do 4,500 crunches to lose just one pound of belly fat, according to Nutrition Action Healthletter.

The only proven method for shedding an unsightly belly roll, Sutton-Tyrrell says, is the old-fashioned way: eat less, exercise more. And she does mean old. Cavemen ran around hunting for their dinners and developed the ability to store a little extra body fat in the abdomen to burn as energy for times when food was scarce. Potbellies were probably unknown. Unfortunately, modern man doesn’t do much running around; the only hunting most of us do is to search for the cordless phone, so we can dial up Domino’s to get another deep-dish pie delivered. But our bodies are still very good at storing fat, for the famine that never comes.

So what’s my problem? I get plenty of exercise, but I also get myself to the cookies-and-chips aisle every time I go to the grocery store. Keeping the calories down is especially tough as we find ourselves in the middle of the annual fattening rituals known as Christmas and New Year’s. But I know this much: Finding the motivation to pass up an eggnog or bonbon this holiday season will be as easy as slipping on a pair of old pants.

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Massachusetts freelance writer Timothy Gower is the author of “Staying at the Top of Your Game” (Avon Books, 1999). He can be reached by e-mail at tgower@capecod.net. The Healthy Man runs the second Monday of the month.