If you think the belly is the first sign if weight gain…guess again.
You know what they say…a moment on the lips, forever on the…tongue?
That phrase might not have quite the same ring to it, but it might be more accurate, according to world-renowned physician, and food scientist, Dr. William Li.
While appearing on a recent episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, Li explained, “When you have too many calories and you overflow your fuel tank, the first fat that grows is inside your body. You can’t see it.”
The type of fat Li is talking about is visceral fat, which, unlike the subcutaneous fat we might see on our hips, thighs, and belly, is stored in the spaces around your internal organs and contributes to serious health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
Li went on to say that, according to clinical research, one of the first places “anyone” starts to accumulate this type of visceral fat is the tongue. The back of the tongue, specifically. Which is described by Li as a “pillow of fat.”
This factoid helps explain why obesity and/or weight gain are often closely linked to sleep apnea. Obviously, there are exceptions. People who are considered underweight can end up having sleep apnea for a variety of reasons. But generally speaking, it’s a byproduct of gaining fat.
In fact, Li said that sudden snoring can actually be an early “telltale” sign of weight gain…since the tongue will block your airways as it naturally relaxes if it’s carrying extra fat. This all happens long before a “muffin top” starts to show.
Down in the comments, folks were fairly gobsmacked at this new information, and reeling because of how much it, surprisingly, made sense.
“It’s so interesting because if you notice if you’ve been somebody that’s lost weight and gained weight, people will complain about accidentally biting their tongue, probably because of the fluctuation that starts in your tongue! Who knew, wow totally fascinating!”
“He makes a good point because I just went to my pulmonologist to talk about potential sleep apnea and the first thing he had me do was open my mouth and stick out my tongue and immediately said, yup you have sleep apnea. Now I’m scheduled for the sleep study ”
“I heard many years ago that a Chinese medicine practitioner exercises his tongue 👅 to stay youthful! Makes sense to me now!”
It also inspired a few tongue-centric jokes…
“‘Your tongue is looking a little more full these days…’ newest way of saying ‘did you put on a little weight?’”
“So basically my gym membership should come with tongue exercises too?😂😂😂😂”
Who's gonna be doing tongue exercises at the gym now? media0.giphy.com
Thankfully, studies have also shown that losing fat, and therefore fat in the tongue, can also improve sleep apnea.
In a new paper, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (according to CNN), researchers used MRI imaging to measure the effect a 10% weight loss would have on the upper airways of 67 obese patients. The images showed reducing tongue fat was the primary reason overall sleep apnea scores improved by 31%.
“In fact, the more tongue fat you lost, the more your apnea improved,” said Penn Medicine sleep specialist Dr. Richard Schwab, the lead author of the study.
There were a few other interesting takeaways. One, weight loss also reduced the size of certain jaw muscles and the muscles on each side of the airways, which also improved snoring. Two, the study opens up new avenues of what exercise or treatments might be done to improve tongue fat loss, such as cool sculpting (which is normally reserved for stomach fat) or even playing wind instruments in lieu of using a CPAP machine.
Basically, next time someone offers you something fattening and scrumptious but you’re trying to be good, simply say, “No thanks that’ll go straight to my tongue!”
BMI is not always an accurate measure of health.
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