The "right kind of fat"

  • Have you heard people say this before?

    Apparently there is a way to be "good fat" and "bad fat." I guess it is how you wear the weight, but I don't know. I've only just discovered this phrase.

    I might be the wrong kind of fat I guess because I always see people who are shorter than I that weigh the same or more that look better than I do. I always feel like other people have "firm fat" where my fat is more...jiggly? Ugh I wish I hadn't read that because now, not only do I still feel fat but with the added bonus of now feeling like I'm the wrong kind of fat on top of it. I think I'm just having a "should have stayed in bed day."
  • Well jiggly fat is generally considered better because the firm fat is fat that sits around your organs and can pose health issues. I wouldn't worry about it though.
  • I've heard that carrying weight around the mid section (the "spare tire") is worse for wear. I believe it's something about the weight being concentrated around the major organs, much like nelie mentioned. But even if you're worried, you're working towards bettering yourself and your health! I wouldn't worry, you're getting healthy!

    A quick Google: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellnes...ory?id=9534982
  • Are you sure it wasn't about dietary fat? Like good fat being omega 3s and olive oil?

    It is true, though that apple shaped people are supposed to have higher risk for some health issues than are pears or hourglass shapes. And then also the thing about visceral fat around your organs being more dangerous than subcutaneous fat.
  • I read an interesting book that included a discussion of this topic. Fat that accumulates in the liver is associated with metabolic syndrome, incl diabetes, heart disease, liver failure, etc. You can be thin or fat or thin and have fatty liver disease as it's been called. Eating a lot of refined sugar, according to Lustig, contributes to fatty liver disease & metabolic syndrome.

    If you are apple-shaped, it typically means that you carry fat around the organs in the abdomen. This is often associated with fatty liver and all of the problems associated with that.

    The book is Fat chance by Robert Lustig. There are probably articles and Youtube talks by him all over the web, too. btw, he says that fat on the thighs & buttocks is healthy, subcutaneous fat.
  • I dunno, I would think that "right" (based on appearance as you said above) depends on the eye of the beholder? Maybe that person who looks better to you would look worse to someone else, I don't think there's an ideal standard to how your weight should be proportioned to what parts of the body. I think this would also apply to firm or "jiggly" wouldn't it?