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All fat is not created equal! “Apple fat,” the fat that accumulates in your midsection, is responsible for most of the health risks associated with obesity. Since the fat is wrapped around vital organs like the heart and lungs, the hormones that the fat secretes can affect the functioning of these organs creating health risks. In contrast “pear fat” where fat accumulates lower down, in the buttocks and thighs, is more benign since it doesn’t impact the vital organs higher up in the body. While people with pear shaped bodies may be dissatisfied with their appearance, they are likely to have fewer weight related health problems.
While body shape, apple or pear, is largely determined by heredity, people with the apple shape may be able to reduce their belly fat. Chronic stress has been linked to increases in cortisol, the “stress hormone”. Increased cortisol secretion promotes abdominal fat. Animal studies have shown that stress also increases preference for sugar and fat. To test the effects of mindfulness on cortisol and abdominal fat, 47 overweight or obese women participated in a study conducted at the University of California San Francisco.
Mindfulness was defined as an open, non-judgmental view of present-moment experience with the goal of interrupting habitual thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Applied to eating, the mindfulness treatment encouraged the experiencing of sensations of physical hunger, feelings of satiety, taste satisfaction, and awareness of the emotional triggers of eating. The mindfulness treatment consisted of nine, two and a half hour classes and one seven hour guided meditation practice. The sessions included yoga, sitting meditation, a review of the previous week’s practice and challenges, followed by the introduction of eating or emotional awareness practices and homework. The control group participated in a two-hour nutrition and exercise class.
As expected, the mindfulness group was more responsive to bodily sensations, decreased cortisol, and reduced their eating in response to external cues. Overall, mindfulness didn’t significantly reduce abdominal obesity but further analysis showed that the participants who reported the greatest increases in mindfulness, awareness of bodily sensations, and decreases in chronic stress lost the most abdominal fat. The study was limited by the small number of participants and its relatively short, four-month duration. It’s possible that there would have been a larger effect if participants used the techniques consistently over a longer period.
Although the findings were encouraging this was an exploratory study. The results don’t promise that eating mindfully will result in a flat, “six pack” mid-section but even if mindfulness doesn’t decrease belly fat, the results show that eating mindfully is likely to decrease emotional eating and eating provoked by external cues.
Hopefully future research will identify which overweight individuals are likely to benefit from mindfulness and the optimal methods that will decrease cortisol and belly fat.
