You go on a diet, lose weight, and then the pounds creep back on. Many people are familiar with this cycle. But a new study shows that even if the scale eventually returns to its previous reading, changing your diet can have long-term positive effects on your health. It’s not just body weight that matters – it’s belly fat.
This refers to what’s known as visceral fat. It isn’t located under the skin but rather surrounds internal organs such as the liver and intestines. This type of fat is considered particularly harmful because it can promote inflammation and impair metabolism. A research team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and the Leipzig Center of Metabolism (LeiCeM) Cluster of Excellence at the University of Leipzig has now investigated how this fat changes over the long term in a long-term study involving 366 participants.
Ten Years Later: The Body Remembers
The study invited people who had previously participated in dietary studies to return for examinations five and ten years later. At that time, the participants had followed a healthy, low-fat diet or various forms of the Mediterranean diet and combined this with physical activity.
Using MRI scans, the team was able to precisely measure fat deposits. Even a decade after the initial dietary change, visceral fat remained below baseline levels – even though body weight had, on average, returned to its original level.
“Our findings challenge the traditional view that regaining weight equates to clinical failure, as the human body retains a cardiometabolic memory of visceral fat loss,” says Prof. Dr. Iris Shai, principal investigator at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and visiting professor at the University of Leipzig’s Faculty of Medicine.
28 Percent Lower Risk of Diabetes
Every 10 percent reduction in abdominal fat during the dietary phase was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on. Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body can no longer properly process sugar in the blood, with potential consequences for the heart, kidneys, and eyes.
“This study showed that only a reduction in visceral fat predicted a lower future risk of type 2 diabetes,” says Prof. Dr. Matthias Blüher, who co-led the study at the University of Leipzig. The researchers conclude that the number on the scale alone is not the decisive factor for long-term metabolic health. What may be more important is the extent to which abdominal fat – which is particularly problematic for health – can be reduced.
