Supertraining

Eugene,

Central obesity (also known as visceral, male-pattern or apple-shaped 
adiposity), overweight with fat deposits mainly around the waist is 
one of the symptoms of metabolic syndrome.  There are several names 
for this condition: metabolic syndrome, syndrome X, insulin 
resistance syndrome, Reaven's syndrome.

People with metabolic syndrome run a higher risk of high blood 
pressure, diabetes, yet these people sneak under the BMI radar 
regularly.
It is thought that the visceral fat increases the risk of 
inflammation, any kind of inflammation and this could lead to 
injuries and even cardiac arrest. Inflammation is the considered one 
of the factors to cause aging. This is not to be thought of lightly, 
a fat tummy will reduce life expectancy ! ! ! 

So, your first goal should be to reduce her waist.

For most people that's pretty simple, start to run and start to 
starve. Both wrong.

Reduce her waist by:
1. educate her about proper dieting. Explain to her that skipping 
breakfast or any other meals is NOT the way to go.
2. get her on a proper diet. As mentioned by others, sugars and 
starchy carbs should be avoided, replace them with vegetables and 
fruits.
3. weight training, compound exercises preferably. Most trainers will 
suggest a body building type program with lots of crunches and 
triceps kick backs. Again, not the way to go. Deadlifts, squats, 
woodchops. She can start sipping on a sportsdrink half an hour into 
the training.
4. low impact cardio. Running is not the best choice since she's 
injury prone.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1984343
This study shows upper-obese women break down muscle tissue faster 
during training, and build less muscle afterwards. So don't even 
think about building muscles before you get that tummy in check.

Regards,
Johan Bastiaansen
Hasselt - Belgium



--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Eugene K O Wong" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hello!
> 
> It's been a while since I last posted! I've got a question about a
> friend of mine, she's slim but her body fat seems to gather around 
her
> abdomen - this is also the case for her sister who is also very 
slim.
> 
> What's causing this? I thought of weak rectus muscles, but there 
arent
> any obvious hernias... or could it be a genetic tendency for her
> bodyfat to gather around her tummy? Any advice as to what to do? I
> guess she could lose a bit of weight, but her height is 160cm and 
her
> weight is 53kg (BMI 21 - but I guess that's mid to high range for a
> Chinese girl?).
> 
> All help is appreciated!
> 
> Thanks!
> Eugene Wong
> Aberdeen,
> Scotland,
> UK.
>