Why is waist circumference so important?
The point is that fat inside the abdomen is deadly. We’re not talking about fat under the skin (subcutaneous fat) which you could remove with liposuction. Liposuction or a tummy tuck don’t remove the toxic fat at all. We’re talking about fat inside the abdominal cavity (visceral fat); this fat is in and around the abdominal organs such as the liver. You can’t reduce the fat in your liver with liposuction.
You can measure the visceral fat accurately with a sophisticated CT scanner (for research purposes). Or you can simply measure the waist circumference with a tape measure. And there’s a very close correlation between the two: the waist circumference accurately reflects the quantity of visceral fat.
This is why waist circumference is such a good guide to risk.
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