Managing Abdominal Obesity after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant

This video will explain what abdominal obesity is, how it can affect your health, how to find out if you have it, and what you can do to prevent or manage abdominal obesity.

Being overweight is very bad for your health, but not all fat is the same. The type of body fat and where it is affects your risk for heart disease.

The fat surrounding the major organs in your belly, like your liver and spleen, is called abdominal fat. Abdominal fat is more dangerous than other types of fat. It can cause high blood sugar, high cholesterol, and heart disease, and it can even increase your risk of certain types of cancer.

Having too much abdominal fat is called abdominal obesity. Older age, not having an active lifestyle, and eating foods that aren't healthy increase your risk for abdominal obesity.

The size of your belly, called abdominal girth, is how we measure abdominal obesity. If you're a man, abdominal girth greater than 40 inches, which is 102 centimeters, is bad for your health. For women, greater than 35 inches, which is 88 centimeters, is bad for health.

To measure abdominal girth, take off your shoes and stand with your feet together. Relax and breathe out. Using paper or cloth measuring tape, measure your waist at your belly button, over your bare skin.

If you don't have a soft measuring tape, you can measure your girth using a piece of string, then measure the string with a tape measure or ruler. The measurement is your abdominal girth.

By knowing your abdominal circumference, you can see if you're at risk.

The only way to reduce abdominal fat is to lose weight. You can do this by eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains, drinking less alcohol, avoiding fried foods, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly.

If you have too much abdominal fat, try to lose 7 to 10% of your weight over 6 months to a year. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, try to lose 20 pounds.

Limit the total fat you eat to 25 to 35% of your daily calories. Most of these calories should be from unsaturated fats, like vegetable oils, nuts, and omega-3 fatty acids from fish.

Less than 7% of your daily calories should come from saturated fat from meat, full-fat dairy products, fried foods, and desserts. Limit or avoid trans fats and processed meat like hot dogs, salami, and bacon.

Eat less red meats, as well as processed and packaged foods, sugary beverages, and sodium, which is salt. Eat more vegetables, especially leafy greens, fruits, whole grains such as brown rice and quinoa, and lean proteins such as beans or lentils.

If you're on a low microbial diet, you can still eat most well-washed fruits and vegetables, including apples, bananas, melon, salad greens, tomatoes, avocado, and cooked rough-textured produce like berries and broccoli.

Losing a lot of strength during transplant can make exercising very hard. As you get your strength back, start exercising regularly. This will make your heart healthier.

Most cancer and heart health guidelines recommend at least 2.5 hours, which is 150 minutes, of moderate-intensity exercise per week, such as fast walking, or 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise, such as jogging, or an equal combination of the two.

Slowly work your way up to this level, and check with your healthcare provider before starting an exercise program.

It's also good to lift weights twice a week using all your muscles. This will help you build lean muscle, which helps burn calories.

The exercise you choose depends on the amount of time passed since your transplant, how strong your immune system is, and whether you have or had side effects from your transplant. Side effects that can affect exercise are graft-versus-host disease, also known as GVHD, muscle weakness from steroids, numbness or pain in your feet, and a low hemoglobin or platelet count.

Exercise can be done in short intervals, such as for 10 minutes, 3 times a day, or 15 minutes twice a day, but it should always be at least 10 minutes at a time.

Try to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Not sleeping enough can cause you to gain weight.

Ask your healthcare provider for a referral to an exercise program, physical therapy, or to a nutritionist if you need more help managing your weight.

For more information about your heart health after allogeneic bone marrow transplant, visit www.mskcc.org/pe. There, you can find written information, such as Managing Metabolic Syndrome After Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant, as well as more videos.