Metabolic syndrome prevention & management

What is abdominal obesity?

• Abdominal obesity refers to excessive accumulation of visceral fat in the abdominal area.
• Abdominal obesity is a risk factor of fatty liver, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular diseases.

Strategies to manage abdominal obesity

Diet management

• Proper dieting

Calorie control

Foods having a similar number of calories to a bowl of rice

Exercise management

Reducing sitting time

• Reduce your sitting time to less than 8 hours a day.
• Sitting for more than 10 hours a day causes two-fold increase in risks of obesity, diabetes mellitus, or cardiovascular disease.

Strategies to reduce sitting time

• Monitor how long you sit throughout your day.
• Try not to sit still for more than an hour.
• Do not sit immediately after meals.
• Stretch or walk in place while watching TV.
• Stand on public transport.

Exercise for abdominal obesity

• Aerobic exercise, such as, walking, cycling, swimming, or aqua exercise, can help prevent and manage abdominal obesity.
• Muscular strength exercise is helpful to gain muscle while lose weight.
• A frequency of more than 3 times/week for a duration of 30-60 minutes each is recommended.
• Monitor your heart rate and joint status while you exercise . Stop exercising when you feel your heart beating too fast or chest or joint pain.

Walking

• For adults, 8,000-10,000 steps per day (equivalent to 10 minutes of walking, 200kcal) are recommended.
• Less than 5,000 steps/day indicate low physical activities.
• Use smartphone app to monitor your physical activity levels.

Exercise stages

Exercise intensity

Safe exercise according to age groups

The amount of calories burned in 30 minutes of exercise

The recommended daily calorie consumption for metabolic syndrome

• To prevent and manage metabolic syndrome, a daily calorie consumption of more than 300 kcal is recommended.

Obesity evaluation

Waist circumference measurement

• Stand with feet shoulder width apart (30 cm).
• Wrap a flexible tape measure around the waist (between the lower end of the ribs and the top of pelvis). Take the reading while breathing out normally.
• Be sure the tape is not compressed tightly and take the measurement to the nearest 0.1 cm.
• If necessary, lift folds of fat tissues around the abdomen to measure waist circumference.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

• BMI is defined as the weight divided by the square of the height.
• BMI = weight (kg)/height (m)²