A person may not be obese but that does not mean they are healthy. Belly fat is a slow poison that does not seem harmful at first.

Dr. Jose of Medina- Inojosa is with the Mayo Clinic’s division of preventative cardiology in Rochester, Minn and he is of the expert opinion that people who have a belly while being normal weight are prone to heart problems. The study included 1,700 people aged 45 and older at the time of the study and were closely followed from 2000 to 2016.

Those with normal BMI but high levels of belly fat were about twice as likely to have a heart attack, have procedures to open blocked arteries or die from heart problems during the follow-up than people without belly fat.

The findings of this study were presented at a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Slovenia. “ The belly is usually the first place we deposit fat, so people classified as overweight BMI but without a fat belly probably have more muscle, which is good for health.” Medina explained in a news release. Muscle is the storehouse for metabolism and it helps to decrease lipid/ fat and sugar levels in the blood.

If you have fat around your belly or tend to collect fat around your belly and it is greater than the size of your hips, you need to visit your doctor to assess your cardio vascular health and fat distribution. The target after that will be waist loss rather than weight loss.

They also gave some suggestion reduce belly fat. Exercising more, decreasing sedentary time by taking the stairs instead of the life or even getting off the subway one stop early and walking the rest of the journey are some small ways. You can indulge in resistance training and cut out refined carbohydrates. Doctors should generally refrain from assuming that people with normal BMI are not at risk of heart problems.

This study also gave evidence that doctors should also measure central obesity or belly fat to get a better picture to ascertain if the patient is actually at risk.