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Wisdom Wednesdays: Ground-Breaking Research On How Exercise Changes How You Fat Cells Behave To Improve Your Metabolic Health - Even Without Weight Loss · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays NA.
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  Speaker 1: This week, I'm going to start with the question are
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  Speaker 1: you better to be overweight and fit or a normal
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  Speaker 1: weight and unfit. If you said the former, then you
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  Speaker 1: go to the top of the class. And this week
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  Speaker 1: is all about why. Now metabolically healthy obesity may sound
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  Speaker 1: like an oxymoron because obesity is linked to a whole
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  Speaker 1: host of health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease,
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  Speaker 1: and it's second only to cigarette smoking in terms of
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  Speaker 1: its impact on accelerating aging at a fundamental biological level.
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  Speaker 1: Now that being said, there are people who have a
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  Speaker 1: body mass index a BMI in the overweight or obese range,
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  Speaker 1: which is twenty five to thirty for overweight and more
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  Speaker 1: than thirty for obese. But these people, by most measures,
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  Speaker 1: are metabolically healthy. They're not insulin resistant, they have normal
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  Speaker 1: blood glucose levels, they have normal blood liberals lipids, they
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  Speaker 1: don't have high blood pressure, and they often have superior
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  Speaker 1: cardioorespiratory fitness. So these metabolically healthy overweight or obese people
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  Speaker 1: are also at lower risk for chronic diseases compared to
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  Speaker 1: unhealthy overweight people, and they tend to take few or
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  Speaker 1: no medications. Now, that isn't to say that weight management
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  Speaker 1: shouldn't be a priority for somebody who's overweight or obese,
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  Speaker 1: regardless of whether or not they're healthy, as we know
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  Speaker 1: that BMI and weight are still strong predictors of disease risk,
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  Speaker 1: particularly as you get older. But it is a clear
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  Speaker 1: reminder that weight isn't the only barometer of health. What
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  Speaker 1: makes most people with metabolically healthy obesity different from those
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  Speaker 1: who are less healthy isn't quite clear right, but recent
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  Speaker 1: research turns out that it's probably got something to do
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  Speaker 1: with the unique characteristics of their fat tissue, so they
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  Speaker 1: explore this. We're going to talk about two key types
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  Speaker 1: of fat, subcutaneous and visceral fat, and how they impact
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  Speaker 1: your health very very differently. Plus, we're going to explore
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  Speaker 1: the latest findings from a couple of recent studies on
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  Speaker 1: how regular physical activity and fitness not only reduces dangerous
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  Speaker 1: visceral fat, but also changes how your fat tissue functions
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  Speaker 1: at a molecular level. And this is the key. Now,
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  Speaker 1: these insights are game changers, especially if you're overweight or
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  Speaker 1: you're struggling to lose weight. And I've said for many
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  Speaker 1: years that it's better to be fit and overweight than
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  Speaker 1: unfit and a normal weight, and this research, this new
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  Speaker 1: research strongly reinforces that. So the first study I want
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  Speaker 1: to talk about is published in Nature Metabolism, a really
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  Speaker 1: top quality journal, and it was led by researchers from
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  Speaker 1: the University of Michigan. So they studied two groups of
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  Speaker 1: adults who were even overweight or obese, and one group
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  Speaker 1: had been doing endurance exercise for over two years while
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  Speaker 1: the other group did buggeroll and both groups were carefully
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  Speaker 1: matched by body fat percentage, which allowed the researchers to
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  Speaker 1: specifically study high exercise and fitness rather than weight loss
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  Speaker 1: alone impacts on fat tissue. And another study that is
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  Speaker 1: kind of linked to this was published in the International
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  Speaker 1: Journal of Obesity, and it focused on participants with overweight
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  Speaker 1: or obesity who underwent an eight week supervised endurance training
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  Speaker 1: program and they exercised for one r three times a week,
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  Speaker 1: and the researchers took samples of the fat tissues before
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  Speaker 1: and after the intervention, and this study provided crucial insights
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  Speaker 1: into high fat tissue responds to both acute and long
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  Speaker 1: term exitercise. As you said, the both of those studies,
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  Speaker 1: and the beautiful thing is the first one is observational
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  Speaker 1: and then the second one is an actual intervention study.
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  Speaker 1: But combining the data from both we get really good evidence.
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  Speaker 1: So let's break down the difference between subcutaneous and visceral
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  Speaker 1: fat and why it matters. So subcutaneous, fact, you may
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  Speaker 1: be aware, is the layer of fat that's just underneath
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  Speaker 1: your skin. It's the stuff that you can pinch, and
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  Speaker 1: whilst having too much of it is obviously not a
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  Speaker 1: good thing, it's far less dangerous than visceral fat. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this is the sort of fat that is underneath your stomach,
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  Speaker 1: muscles and around your organ so we can't pinch it,
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  Speaker 1: we can't even see it. But these two new studies
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  Speaker 1: show that exercise improves how your subcutaneous fat stores energy,
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  Speaker 1: and we know it's better to have your energy stored
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  Speaker 1: in this type of fat rather than the visceral fat.
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  Speaker 1: So visceral fat, as I said, is much more harmful.
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  Speaker 1: It builds up around your org, around your livery, your
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  Speaker 1: pancreasty and testines, and it is linked to a whole
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  Speaker 1: host of serious health problems. So, as I said, it's
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  Speaker 1: a different type of fat. Because it actually produces its
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  Speaker 1: own hormones, and some researchers are suggesting we should be
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  Speaker 1: looking at visceral fat as an endocrine organ because it
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  Speaker 1: produces these hormones called autopus kinds and they drive cellular inflammation,
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  Speaker 1: which is the driver of many chronic conditions. And we
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  Speaker 1: know there's a huge, long list of conditions associated with
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  Speaker 1: excess visceral fat, but I'll just talk about a few
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  Speaker 1: of the big ones. So heart disease. We know that
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  Speaker 1: visceral fat increases the risk of plaque building up in
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  Speaker 1: the arteries, leading to heart attacks and strokes, and then
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  Speaker 1: it also promotes insulin resistance and drives type two diabetes.
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  Speaker 1: But the hormones that I talked about earlier on in
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  Speaker 1: these inflammatory compounds that are associated with those hormones actually
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  Speaker 1: cause your blood pressure to arise, further straining your cardiovascular system.
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  Speaker 1: And when that fat accumulates in the liver, it leads
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  Speaker 1: to liver damage. And many people have heard of fatty
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  Speaker 1: liver disease, and now we have non alcoholic fatty liver disease,
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  Speaker 1: and over time that can result in liver failure. And
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  Speaker 1: then visra fat has been linked to a number of
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  Speaker 1: different cancers, including colorectal cancer and breast cancer to the
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  Speaker 1: biggest killers. So this is why visceral fat is dangerous
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  Speaker 1: and you want to minimize that. And whilst as I said,
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  Speaker 1: you can't see it, it is wreaking havoc on your health.
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  Speaker 1: So reducing it is really essential for anybody who's looking
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  Speaker 1: to improve their long term health outcomes. So let's explore
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  Speaker 1: how exercise helps. So both those studies I mentioned found
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  Speaker 1: that regular physical activity doesn't just burn calories, it actually
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  Speaker 1: remodels your fat tissue in a way that makes it
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  Speaker 1: healthier stuf from nature metabolism, so that people who've been
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  Speaker 1: exercising for more than two years had more capillaries in
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  Speaker 1: their subcutaneous fat tissue, So that basically meant that more
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  Speaker 1: blood and oxygen was getting there as well as nutrients,
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  Speaker 1: which then all together helped the fat to store excess
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  Speaker 1: energy in that particular type of fat. And additionally, the
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  Speaker 1: exercisers had fewer inflammatory sales like macriphizes in their fat tissue.
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  Speaker 1: And this is key because the inflammation in fat tissue,
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  Speaker 1: as I said earlier, can lead to insular resistance and
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  Speaker 1: type two diabetes cardiovascar disease and even now neuro degenerative
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  Speaker 1: diseases as well as some forms of cancer. So as
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  Speaker 1: well as all of that, the fat sales in the
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  Speaker 1: people who exercised regularly had a higher capacity to store
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  Speaker 1: energy in that sub subcutaneous fat. And that might sound
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  Speaker 1: counter intuitive that it's better to be able to store fat,
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  Speaker 1: but it actually keeps it away from the organs, which
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  Speaker 1: is key if you put it into the subcutaneous fat.
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  Speaker 1: So what happens is once your subcutaneous fat sales get
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  Speaker 1: filled up, it goes into that visceral fat. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: International Journal of Obesity study also found something really interesting.
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  Speaker 1: After just eight weeks of regular endurance training, participants had
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  Speaker 1: a significant reduction in fat volume, especially their visceral fat.
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  Speaker 1: And more importantly, the researchers notice changes at the molecular level.
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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier on, so the fat celles showed
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  Speaker 1: less activity in genes related to lipid storage, meaning that
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  Speaker 1: the body was actually becoming more efficient at breaking down
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  Speaker 1: and utilizing fat instead of storing it. So there's two
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  Speaker 1: things at play here. The body gets more efficient at
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  Speaker 1: using fat and when it does store it because there's
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  Speaker 1: just an excess of overall energy, it's likely to store
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  Speaker 1: it in the subcutaneous fat rather than the visceral fat.
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  Speaker 1: But it also this study reveals something else pretty fascinating.
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  Speaker 1: Exercise helps to reset the circadian rhythm of fat tissue,
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  Speaker 1: and most people don't realize that lots of your sales
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  Speaker 1: run off circadian biology, and when that circadian rhythm gets disrupted,
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  Speaker 1: it actually creates metabolic mayhem. So this means that not
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  Speaker 1: only does your body store fat more effectively, but it
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  Speaker 1: also coordinates this process with your body's natural clock, and
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  Speaker 1: this synchronization, the researchers think could help to improve metabolism
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  Speaker 1: and lower the risk of diseases such as diabetes and
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  Speaker 1: neurodegenerative diseases. So what does this all mean for real humans? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I think the big thing is that if you're overweight,
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  Speaker 1: you're struggling with your weight or your obese, fitness should
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  Speaker 1: be the more important metric than the number on the scale,
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  Speaker 1: and just focusing on getting fit is probably the most
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  Speaker 1: important thing that you can do for your health. You
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  Speaker 1: may also lose some weight as you go on that journey,
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  Speaker 1: but I know so many people, and particularly in the
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  Speaker 1: fitness industry, that people they go and they join a
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  Speaker 1: gym because they're wanting to lose weight, and they don't
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  Speaker 1: lose weight, and they get disheartened and they just stop.
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  Speaker 1: But if these people could just see what's happening underneath
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  Speaker 1: the hood in terms of the impact on the fat
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  Speaker 1: tissue type and the metabolic function of that fat, they
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  Speaker 1: would definitely be continuing. So it's a real shame that
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  Speaker 1: we don't have some sort of a device that can
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  Speaker 1: actually look into the body and just see the difference
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  Speaker 1: from a metabolic process. So the big thing really is
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  Speaker 1: to focus on getting as fit as you possibly can,
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  Speaker 1: because when you get fit, it improves your heart health.
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  Speaker 1: Your strength is your cardiovascar system, reduces your risk of
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  Speaker 1: heart disease and other diseases. It improves your insulin sensitivity,
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  Speaker 1: it reduces your inflammation, it improves your mental health, and
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  Speaker 1: it increases your long devity. You'll have heard me banging
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  Speaker 1: on about the single biggest predictor of longevity is your
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  Speaker 1: cardio respiratory fitness. So focus less on the skills and
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  Speaker 1: more on getting yourself fit. That's it for this week, folks,
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  Speaker 1: Catch you next time.