Fat and muscles

Subcutaneous fat is an inert storage depot. Visceral fat — around the liver, intestines, and heart — is active tissue that releases inflammatory substances and hormones directly into the blood reaching the liver. It interferes with insulin, raises triglycerides, blood pressure, and inflammation, and is associated with diabetes, heart disease, some types of cancer, and dementia. You cannot see it on the scale, but a measuring tape can: an 80 cm waist means it is there. The good news: it goes first on a low-carbohydrate diet because it responds first to falling insulin. Read the analysis — visceral fat.

There is a term: “thin on the outside, fat on the inside.” BMI 22, thin arms and legs, a soft belly, little muscle, and 35% body fat. These women believe they “do not need to lose weight” and do not understand where the fatigue, prediabetes, and belly at a normal weight come from. The cause is years of dieting without strength training: every diet took away muscle, the weight returned as fat, and at the same weight the body was rebuilt. It is treated not with a calorie deficit, but with strength training and protein: the weight may not change, while the body changes completely. Read the analysis — skinny fat.

The difference between 25 and 18 kg of muscle is 90 kcal per day at rest, or 4 kg of fat per year without effort. But rest is not the main point: muscle is the only tissue that takes up glucose from the blood without insulin, and the more muscle you have, the steadier your blood sugar and the lower your insulin. After 30, without strength training, muscle is lost at a rate of 3-8% per decade; after 50, the loss is faster. “I eat as I did at 25, but my weight is rising” means lost muscle, not a slowed metabolism. Read the analysis — muscles and energy expenditure.

Salt, carbohydrates, the menstrual cycle, sleep, training, and heat — each can move water by 0,5-2 kg in a day. The first 2-3 kg on the method are water released as insulin falls, and this is not “cheating,” but unloading: swelling goes down in the face and fingers. Then water stabilizes, and the scale begins to show fat — slowly, 0,3-0,7 kg per week. Those who do not know about water quit in the second week, when “it became slow.” Read the analysis — water and weight fluctuations.

Up to 35, the body is forgiving: muscles hold on by themselves, fat goes to the hips, and diets “work.” After 40, a woman’s estrogen falls, and with it the protection of the muscles and bones: minus 1% of muscle per year, fat moves to the belly, and the same plate adds weight. This is where body composition stops being about aesthetics and becomes about health: visceral fat means blood sugar, blood pressure, and the heart; muscles mean bones, joints, and independence at 70. A 45-year-old woman who does strength training and eats enough protein looks and feels better than she did at 35 without them — this is not a slogan, but a result visible in measurements after six months. About bones and muscles after 45 — bones and muscles after 45; about perimenopause — after 40: perimenopause.