Wisdom Wednesdays - Not all fat is created equal - and there's a new villain on the scene

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Everyone, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. And today
is a very special day because it is the fifth
birthday of the podcast. I could not believe it. I
actually thought I'd been doing it for about three years
and I just checked and it's actually five years, which
is crazy. So thank you to you, my listeners, because

(00:30):
you're the guys that keep me doing this by listening
in every week. And it would be great, a great
birthday present for the podcast if you wouldn't mind jumping
on to your favorite podcast player, whether it's Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or whatever and leaving a review, because reviews actually really
really helped the podcast to get up the charts, and

(00:53):
that helps for a whole heap of reasons that I'm
not really going to go into right now, but let's
on with the podcast. This week, we are going to
talk about something that I think is both fascinating and
super important for anybody that's interested in our long term health. Now,
we all know that carrying too much body fat can

(01:15):
be bad for your health, but we all know that
obesity is linked to a whole host of chronic diseases.
But here's the kicker. Not all fat is created equal,
where fat is stored in your body has a massive
impact on how dangerous it is. And you may already
know about some stuff such as visceral fat, which is

(01:36):
the fat that is underneath your stomach muscles and around
your organ You may know that that is a bad
or really bad fat. But even more interestingly, recent research
has shown that fat that builds up inside your muscles,
called intermuscular fat or imat, might be a very significant

(01:59):
play in the development of insulin resistance, type two diabetes,
chronic kidney disease, and other metabolic diseases, and even physical
decline as we age. So let's break that all down. Firstly,
let's do a quick recap on visceral fat, which has
been the usual suspect for many, many years. And as

(02:21):
I said, it's the stuff you can't pinch. It's underneath
your stomach muscles, it's around your organs, inside your abdominal cavity,
and it's long been known to be a major risk
factor for metabolic disease. And unlike the fact that you
can pinch under your skin, which is known as subcutaneous fat,
visceral fat is more metabolically active and more dangerous. It's

(02:45):
actually been called an endocrine organ because it produces its
own hormones called arapokins. It also releases inflammatory substances, and
it floods the liver with fatty acids which to interfere
with blood sugar control and your cholesterol levels. And it's
linked long linked with insulin resistance taptoo, diabetes, heart disease,

(03:08):
and even dementia. The good news is that visceral fat
tends to respond well to lifestyle changes. Things like regular exercise,
better sleep, and cutting back on shit food all help
to reduce it. But more recently, researchers have turned their
attention to this other type of fat that may be

(03:29):
even sneakier because it's hiding in places we don't normally look,
which is inside our muscles. Now here's where the research
gets a bit nuanced. You might have heard the term
before intra muscular fat and immediately thought, m that's gotta
be bad, But it's not always bad. It turns out

(03:51):
that there are two million types of fat that show
up in muscle. One is intra mile cellular lipets or ims.
These are tiny droplets of fat inside your muscle sells themselves.
And then the other one is intermuscular at a post
tissue or IMAT. That's larger fat sales that are between

(04:14):
the muscle fibers and the fascia that holds those fibers together. Now,
the first one, the imcl those little droplets of fat
inside the muscle sales. That's actually normally. In fact, it's
been known for quite a few years that athletes often
have higher levels of this type of fat, and it's
because they burn it as a fuel source during exercise.

(04:39):
So with that regular training, the body adapts by folk
storing it close to the muscle so that it's easily
accessible fuel for muscles that are contracting and need energy.
And that's pretty cool, and this is known as the
athletes paradox. Fit. People can have more intramuscular fat in

(05:00):
inside their muscle sales, but they are still very insulin sensitive.
They don't have diabetes, and it's because they use that
fat efficiently, and the body's just very clever because it's going, hey,
you're doing lots of exercise, so I'm going to store
energy as close to possible to the muscles so that
you can have it straight on hand. Now, the second

(05:21):
type of fat that I'm at the intermuscular out of
post tissue. That's where you've start to see trouble. It,
as I've said, builds up between muscle fibers, and it's
a bit like marbling in a steak, right. It's not
used for fuel like IMCL. Instead, it tends to accumulate
in people who are sedentary, people who are overweight, and

(05:44):
people who have insulin resistance. Now, what's concerning about i'm
at is that it appears to interfere with muscle function.
So unlike the other one, which helps the muscle, this
imat actually impis the muscle. It increases inflammation, and it
drives insulin resistance. So not only does it empower how

(06:06):
your muscles work, but also impers your metabolism and increases
your risk of developing metabolic disease. And unlike visceral fat,
i'm at is often overlooked. You won't see it on
a scale or on BMI, and you won't even see
it in a DEXA scan. And if you're a regular
listener to this podcast, you'll know that I am a

(06:27):
big fan of a DEXA scan because not only do
they show your bunk density, they show you the amount
of muscle that you have. They also show the amount
of visceral fat that you have. It turns out that
i'm AT only turns up in MRI scans or CT scans,
and that's where researchers are now seeing a very clear
association between higher i'm AT levels and poorer blood sugar control,

(06:52):
even after accounting for other fat stores like belly fat.
And in one twenty twenty through three review, researchers noted
that intermuscular fat is strongly correlated with insulin resistance, and
even worse, it's appears that it interferes with how muscles
regenerate and function as we age, So it's not just

(07:16):
a metabolic issue, it's a physical one too. And then
think about this, This is just a nasty, vicious loop.
If it's impairing our insulin resistance and then it's interfering
with our muscles. Muscle is the biggest gluco sink. It's
the thing that stops you becoming insulin resistant when you're

(07:37):
using it. So if it's then interfering with our muscle functions,
then your insulin resistance gets worse and that has a
negative effect. Then you get more of this intermuscular fat
around a nasty, vicious cycle. So what's the takeaway. Well,
while there's been a long focus on visceral fat, and
rightly so, i'm at, it appears might be just as important,

(08:00):
especially for people with obesity, type two diabetes or scarcopania
that aids related muscle loss. And while it's a new
area of research, it does suggest that we shouldn't be
thinking about fat as a number on a scale. Where
the fat is stored and how your body is using
it really matters. Visceral fat drives liver dysfunction and inflammation,

(08:24):
imat interferes with muscle function and insulin sensitivity. Subcutaneous fat
the stuff you can pinch, it is the least harmful.
So what do we do with all of this? Well,
the good news is that the strategies for reducing visceral
fat actually work with i'm at as well. So the

(08:45):
first one is exercised and especially both in resistance training
and high intensity interval training. They help to reduce fat
infiltration in the muscle and improves muscle quality as well
as reduced visceral fat. And then a diet low in
you've guessed that it ultra processed foods, refined carbs, added sugars,

(09:09):
and crabby foods with things like a multifiers and flavor
enhancers and preservatives. They, if you reduce them, will reduce
your overall fat and keep insulin sensitivity in check. And
then it's about prioritizing sleep. Poor sleep is very strongly
linked to fat accumulation in both visceral areas in the

(09:33):
belly and in the muscles. And then it's about tracking
your muscle mass, not just fat mass. This is about
lifting heavy shit because strong, healthy muscle helps protect you
against these effects and a whole host of other chronic diseases. Remember,
it's not the fat that's the enemy. It's the dysfunctional

(09:57):
fat in the wrong places. Next time you hear somebody
saying just lose we it, remind them it's not just
about how much fat you have, it's where you carry it,
and that visceral fat and the intermuscular fat the i'm at.
These are the twin drivers of metabolic dysfunction and many

(10:17):
lifestyle diseases. So that's it for this week, folks, catch
you next time.