- Research has found that smoking can increase belly fat, regardless of other factors such as genetics and socioeconomic status.
- Researchers said that smoking may also cause visceral fat, an unhealthy fat that is located deep within the abdomen and is associated with a number of health problems.
- Experts says it is a myth that smoking can help you lose weight or stay trim.
Smoking may increase fat in the abdomen, especially the kind found deep within the abdominal cavity.
That’s according to
“We also found that the type of fat that increases is more likely the visceral fat, rather than the fat just under the skin. The influence of smoking on belly fat seems to happen regardless of other factors such as socioeconomic status, alcohol use, ADHD, or how much of a risk-taker someone is,” Dr. Germán Carrasquilla, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in a press release.
“From a public health point of view, these findings reinforce the importance of large-scale efforts to prevent and reduce smoking in the general population, as this may also help to reduce abdominal visceral fat and all the chronic diseases that are related to it,” he added. “Reducing one major health risk in the population will, indirectly, reduce another major health risk.”
The researchers noted that people who smoke often have a lower body weight than people who don’t smoke, but they also have more abdominal and visceral fat.
Until now, it was unclear if the visceral fat in smokers was caused directly by smoking or other factors.
As part of their study, the researchers in Copenhagen used a type of statistical analysis to determine whether smoking increased
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