A rippling of flesh under the skin could very well be a sign of “lucky fat,” according to a new study. Researchers at Brunel University have discovered that the type of subcutaneous fat found under the skin (the ‘wobbly’ stuff like jowls), as opposed to that found around the organs, is unrelated to a series of diseases thought to be related to obesity. .
In the study of 37 conditions, a causal link was found among those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30 in 21. Of that number, 12 ailments, such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease, only affected those without’ lucky fat’, according to data collected from 500,000 people. The other nine conditions, including arthritic knees and deep vein thrombosis, found that the presence of extra fat, no matter where it was placed, was enough to trigger a condition.
This research is good news, says Dr. Giles Yeo, senior research associate at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Diseases Unit and author of eat genes, because “not all fats are created equal”. The obesity rate in Britain is 28 per cent (another 36 per cent are overweight), with BMI in which a range of 30 or more classifies as obese, the most widespread measure of the condition. But BMI is “not very helpful” in determining what kind of fat you may have, he says, since even a high reading “won’t tell you your body shape, and the shape of your body, where you store your fat, is very important how sick or not sick you become.” Here’s what you need to know about the new study:
How do I know if I have ‘lucky fat’?
“Unfortunately, it’s impossible for people to know without using a method like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look inside the body,” says Dr. Hanieh Yaghootkar, professor of biosciences, who led Brunel’s research. “Surprisingly, people with the same waist circumference can have very different amounts of visceral fat within their bodies.” A beer belly, which is normally stiff, is more of a concern than “the stuff you store in your butt,” explains Dr. Yeo, since visceral fat “gives off different hormones, different signals.” Excess visceral fat “gives you a lot of problems, and men tend to have that fat, so men have more cases of heart disease.”
Does ‘lucky fat’ make me more likely to avoid disease?
Lucky fat is only “partially lucky,” warns Dr. Tim Frayling, a co-author of the Brunel study. “The extra weight itself, while not raising your blood pressure, will damage your knees, hips, and joints, and increase your risk of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and deep vein thrombosis.”
What genes are at play?
Yaghootkar says the team is “still working on identifying the causative genes, but one of the most likely candidates is PPARG,” which has been implicated in the pathology of diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer. “I don’t think the exact genes really matter,” adds Yeo, saying that looking at our parents’ waistlines is also an important indicator of what lies ahead for us.
To date, 400 genes have been identified that have the potential to affect our weight. The FTO gene, for example, makes carriers 30 percent more likely to be overweight; Meanwhile, MC4R is a receptor that affects our metabolism, controlling how much energy from the food we eat is used, and therefore how hungry we feel. Current estimates put the potential impact of our biological makeup on our waistlines as high as 70 percent.
If I don’t have ‘lucky fat’, what can I do?
Losing weight, whether “favorable” or not, is the key way to reduce the risk of obesity-induced diseases, the researchers say. “There is no single treatment for obesity and people respond differently to different interventions,” adds Yaghootkar, who advises that people “check with their GP or health care providers.” Regardless of whether someone has “favorable or unfavorable adiposity,” living with obesity may still increase a person’s risk of certain health conditions, and those with favorable adiposity still have a higher risk of conditions such as gallstones, osteoarthritis, thromboembolism, and psoriasis as a result of the mechanical effect of excess weight”.
The NHS says that obesity reduces life expectancy by an average of 3 to 10 years, depending on severity. It has also been found to cause cancer of the intestine, breast, and uterus, liver and kidney disease, reduced fertility, and pregnancy complications.
There is a “substantial biological and genetic component” to both weight loss and gain, Frayling says, “because two people who lose the same [amount] they can take very different risks.” Logic previously dictated that apple-shaped guys with more fat around the middle were more likely to suffer from metabolic conditions than their pear-shaped counterparts, but this may be too blunt a tool, he adds.
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