Hey you've been working out.
How's your metabo?
That has a nice ring to it, don't you think? - There's nothing more satisfying than having someone recognize your effort acknowledging that you've been working out. If this is the first time you've been asked, how your metabo is, then you are in for a surprise because it's not what you've been thinking. You are so vane.
Your metabo is the enemy. In fact it is short for metabolic syndrome. If you've been asked how is your metabo, then you probably haven't been anywhere near the gym in the last decade. Unlike minor setbacks in your diet and weight loss, your metabo is a whole other anime. It's a fight for your life.
So what do you need to know before selling yourself too short after gaining weight hanging your head thinking that you might have that thing called metabolic syndrome.
Here are some criteria you need to watch out for.
Metabolic syndrome criteria
Criteria used to diagnose metabolic syndrome include measures of visceral obesity, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Metabolic syndrome is difficult to diagnose in the early stages. However it is believed to be linked closely with lifestyle disease. Here are some things to consider if you are even a bit worried about metabolic syndrome.
Visceral Obesity
There are many faces to obesity not just the one you are used to hearing and seeing about through the media surrounding the concern over global obesity.
There is visceral obesity that goes by the pet-name of apple shaped obesity and subcutaneous obesity that we call pear shaped obesity. Depending on how fat is distributed through your body the type of obesity changes.
Subcutaneous obesity is noticeable in places around the lower abdomen and buttocks. In this case fat is predominantly put on in the lower body and thighs. Having a heavy set lower body may indicate subcutaneous obesity.
Visceral obesity however is when fat is being accumulated in between organ tissues located around your belly. Having a large drum like bulge around your stomach or beer belly may indicate visceral obesity.
Self-diagnosis
Abdominal obesity can be diagnosed easily by measuring the circumference around your abdomen. Just measure the length around your waist right above your belly button. If your measurements are greater than 85cm for men and 90cm for women then you may be at risk of visceral obesity. Note that the criteria for diagnosing visceral obesity vary from country to country.
For example, in the US measurements of 102cm and 89cm is used respectfully for men and women undergoing diagnosis of visceral obesity. Note that the above, criteria for diagnosing visceral obesity in the US is rounded to metric units that don't contain fractions of a centimeter.
Measuring your waist to diagnose metabolic syndrome via visceral obesity is not an exact science. For a better and more indicative measurement of visceral fat getting a CT scan can show you exactly how much un-solid weight you are hauling around. In this case a measurement 100 square-centimeters is used as an indicator of visceral obesity.
High blood pressure
There seems to be a large number of people in Japan with high blood pressure. For cases of metabolic syndrome diagnosed by high blood pressure, if you have a blood pressure reading between 85 and 130 mmHg you may be at risk of metabolic syndrome.
High blood pressure that you are used to hearing about is between 90 and 140 mmHg. However, in the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome high blood pressure isn't alone to justify metabolic syndrome. Extreme cases of high blood pressure are classified as being characterized by hypertension.
High blood sugar
Blood tests can be used to measure the amount of glucose present in your blood. A fasting blood sugar levelmore than 110 mg/dL is considered high blood sugar or to be characterized by hyperglycemia. Normal fasting blood sugar is between 70 and 100 mg/dL. For diabetics, an adjusted fasting blood sugar level of 126 mg/dL is used.
High cholesterol
High cholesterol or hypercholesterolemia is diagnosed by looking at your triglyceride and good cholesterol (HDL Cholesterol, HDL-C) levels. In the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome having more than 150 mg/dLof triglyceride possibly indicate the onset of hyperlipidemia and less than 40 mg/dL of good cholesterol may indicate that you have metabolic syndrome.
Why bad cholesterol doesn't matter
During the early stages of metabolic syndrome blood lipid (triglyceride) levels are said to increase. As a result, what happens next is that good "Low density lipoprotein (LDL)" cholesterol decreases. The levels of triglyceride in your bloods stream along with good cholesterol are used to diagnose metabolic syndrome rendering bad cholesterol levels unnecessary information when diagnosing metabolic syndrome.
What to do if you have metabo-syndrome?
In order to steer far away as you can from metabolic syndrome getting rid of unwanted visceral fat you may want to go on a diet. Of course, not just any diet, a metabolic syndrome diet. While dieting it isn't enough to stress the importance of maintaining healthy levels of blood sugar, neutral fat in blood, and your blood pressure down. If not to lose weight do it for your health.
On top of what you will be eating to turn around metabolic syndrome greatly reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease is reforming lifestyle habits developing healthy habits to reduce the accumulation of visceral fat over time. You know what that means, exercise. That means going out when you don't have to and picking up motivation from where left off last time. For most people reforming habits starts with fitness.
If you are unable to turn back time on metabolic syndrome through convention diet and exercise, please consult with a trained health professional regarding physician assisted weight loss for metabosyndrome.
