A new study\nhas suggested that carrying leg fat is less harmful than belly fat for\npostmenopausal women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers\nin the US discovered that women who had excessive fat around their tummies had\na higher risk of heart disease and strokes than those who carried fat on their\nhips and thighs. Furthermore, the study suggested that carrying fat here,\nrather than around the stomach, could protect women from heart disease\nfollowing the menopause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research\nteam analysed data from 2,600 women. All were aged over 18 at the time of the\nstart of the study and all had a healthy BMI (18-25). The study, which was\nbased on a major US women\u2019s health project, the Women\u2019s Health Initiative,\nbegan in the mid-1990s. Over the course of the following 18 years, the women\nunderwent regular tests and checks to measure and monitor fat, bone and muscle\nmass and density. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team found\nthat women who were apple-shaped and carried weight around the middle were at\nhigher risk of developing heart disease than those who were pear-shaped.\nPear-shaped women carry fat around the hips and thighs and tend to have smaller\nwaists. Women who had an apple body shape were three times more likely to\ndevelop cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This study,\nthe findings of which have been published in the European Heart Journal, builds\non evidence collected by researchers working on previous projects. It is well-documented\nthat storing fat around the abdominal organs is more dangerous, but the reasons\nfor this trend are unclear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead author\nof the study, Prof Qibin Qi, from New York\u2019s Albert Einstein College of\nMedicine, explained that this study is different to others, because it involved\nwomen who had a healthy BMI. Previous studies have tended\nto focus on women who were overweight or obese. The findings of the study\nsuggest that it\u2019s dangerous to carry weight around the middle even if you have\na healthy BMI and you\u2019re not overweight. While it can be more difficult to lose\nweight in certain areas, Prof Qi recommends healthy eating and using targeted\nforms of exercise that blast belly fat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new study has suggested that carrying leg fat is less harmful than belly fat for postmenopausal women. Researchers in the US discovered that women who had excessive fat around their tummies had a higher risk of heart disease and strokes than those who carried fat on their hips and thighs. Furthermore, the study suggested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":888008809,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2822],"tags":[2902,2895,2619,2903,1357,1054,2897,2898,2901,2896,2899,2900],"class_list":["post-4331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obesity","tag-apple-body-shape","tag-belly-fat-for-postmenopausal-women","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-european-heart-journal","tag-healthy-bmi","tag-heart-disease","tag-higher-risk-of-heart-disease-and-strokes","tag-hips-and-thighs","tag-pear-shaped-women","tag-researchers-in-the-us","tag-us-womens-health-project","tag-womens-health-initiative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/888008809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}