Predicting Belly Fat Loss After Weight Loss Surgery
HDL-C and visceral adipose tissue as combined predictors of visceral fat changes following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doctors found that two things before surgery — how much belly fat you have and your good cholesterol level — can predict how much belly fat you’ll lose after weight loss surgery. They made a tool to help guess this for each person.
Surprising Findings
Higher preoperative HDL-c levels are linked to dramatically higher odds of losing more belly fat after surgery — a 10.55-fold increase per 1 mmol/L.
Most people associate HDL-c with heart health, not fat loss. This suggests a direct metabolic role in fat reduction after surgery, which hasn’t been widely studied before.
Practical Takeaways
Patients considering weight loss surgery should get their HDL-c and belly fat measured before surgery — these two factors may predict their success.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doctors found that two things before surgery — how much belly fat you have and your good cholesterol level — can predict how much belly fat you’ll lose after weight loss surgery. They made a tool to help guess this for each person.
Surprising Findings
Higher preoperative HDL-c levels are linked to dramatically higher odds of losing more belly fat after surgery — a 10.55-fold increase per 1 mmol/L.
Most people associate HDL-c with heart health, not fat loss. This suggests a direct metabolic role in fat reduction after surgery, which hasn’t been widely studied before.
Practical Takeaways
Patients considering weight loss surgery should get their HDL-c and belly fat measured before surgery — these two factors may predict their success.
Publication
Journal
BMC Surgery
Year
2025
Authors
Yilan Sun, Liang Wang, Guangyi Zhu, Xiyuan Chen, Dong-bo Lian, Nengwei Zhang, Guangzhong Xu
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Claims (9)
Visceral fat is metabolically active tissue that disrupts insulin sensitivity and metabolic function, and tesamorelin reduces it through mechanisms that improve fat quality, muscle composition, and mitochondrial efficiency, leading to long-term metabolic resilience.
People with more belly fat before surgery tend to lose more belly fat after the surgery, with each extra square centimeter of belly fat before surgery linked to a slightly higher chance of bigger fat loss.
People with higher levels of 'good' cholesterol before surgery tend to lose more belly fat after the surgery, with each unit increase in good cholesterol linked to over 10 times higher chance of bigger fat loss.
A simple scoring tool using belly fat and good cholesterol levels before surgery can accurately predict how much belly fat will be lost after surgery, with 88% accuracy in new patient groups.
People with high blood pressure initially seemed to lose more belly fat after surgery, but this link disappeared when considering other factors like belly fat and cholesterol levels before surgery.