Abdominal Obesity - Causes

Causes

The immediate cause of obesity is net energy imbalance—the organism consumes more usable calories than it expends, wastes‚ or discards through elimination. The fundamental cause of obesity is unknown, but is presumably a combination of the organism's genes and environment. Some studies indicate that visceral adiposity, together with lipid dysregulation and decreased insulin sensitivity, is related to the excessive consumption of fructose. Other environmental factors, such as maternal smoking, estrogenic compounds in the diet‚ and endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be important also. Obesity plays an important role in the impairment of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism shown in high-fat diets. It has also been shown that the quality protein intake in a 24-hour period and the times achieving the essential amino acid threshold of approximately 10 g is inversely related to percent central abdominal fat. Quality protein uptake is defined as the ratio of essential amino acids to daily dietary protein.

Visceral fat cells will release their metabolic by-products in the portal circulation, where the blood leads straight to the liver. Thus, the excess of triglycerides and fatty acids created by the visceral fat cells will go into the liver and accumulate there. In the liver, most of it will be stored as fat. This concept is known as 'lipotoxicity'.

Hypercortisolism, such as in Cushing's syndrome, also leads to central obesity. Many prescription drugs, such as dexamethasone and other steroids, can also have side effects resulting in central obesity, especially in the presence of elevated insulin levels.

The prevalence of abdominal obesity is increasing in western populations, due to a combination of low physical activity and high-energy diets, and also in developing countries, where it is associated with the urbanization of populations.

Waist measurement is more prone to errors than measuring height and weight. It is recommended to use both standards. BMI will illustrate the best estimate of your total body fatness, while waist measurement gives an estimate of visceral fat and risk of obesity-related disease.