I once had a physically fit friend, let’s call her Mia. She had the ideal body structure: normal weight, looks great in jeans, and a flat stomach.
One day, she was diagnosed as carrying a lot of fat around her organs. She looked fine; the doctor’s assessment felt unbelievable.
The doctor explained that our belly fat is structurally weird. Some is visible right under the skin, while some is wrapped around our organs.
Now, there’s a noise that made it to the headlines. A claim that an experimental injection can help melt the hidden fat by 12%. No wonder this claim made it to the news.
Let’s get to know more about these dangerous fats and the injection that melts them.
The “Dangerous Fats”
The dangerous fats that made it to the headlines are called visceral fat. These are your deep belly fats.
Harvard Health described the fat as sitting below the layer under your skin, surrounding your liver, intestines, and other internal organs. It is said to be responsible for metabolic changes, insulin resistance, or type 2 diabetes.
The amounts of visceral fat present can tell you more about the person’s health. These fats are dubbed as “dangerous” because they are linked to heart failure.
In a health report by Fox, visceral fat isn’t removed by liposuction, which doesn’t reduce the health risk when there’s a lot of fat.
The Viral Injection
Meet CBL-514, the experimental drug that made headlines. It works by causing fat cells to undergo apoptosis, a process of self-destruction, while sparing the other cells.
It is hoped to leave less room for fat to build up and slow down weight gain.
What’s that 12% Effectiveness?
Many are asking about the 12% effectiveness. Most media reports don’t tell the whole story; instead, they only hype the “helpful injection.”
The 12% effectiveness is based on assessments of two Phase 2 trials monitored by the scientists. One month after the last injection, the people who got CBL-514 had, on average, 12.01% less of this fat.
The trial subjects who went on the 12-week timeline got shots every three weeks.
That 12% drop was in the lower belly. People who got a dummy shot (a placebo, or inactive substance) went the other way – their visceral fat went up by 5.68%.
What the Headlines Leave Out
Fewer Test Subjects
According to the medical news site News-Medical, only 23 people received the real drug in this part of the study, and 17 got the dummy shot. All 40 subjects have a BMI between 22 and 30. Overall, the trial subjects are a tiny representation.
Smaller Effect Later On
The 12% figure was measured one month after the last shot. At the next check, two to three months after their last shot (depending on the trial), people on CBL-514 still had 10.45% less visceral fat, and those on the dummy shot had 11.76% more. So the effect held, but it was slightly smaller over time.
Premature News
Despite its trending topic status, the drug is still in the testing phase. The third phase of the trial will focus on the subcutaneous fat, not the visceral fat.
No Proven Health Benefits
The lead researcher confirmed that it isn’t proven whether the drug has health benefits, as that is the ultimate goal. The trial focuses on its efficacy in weight loss, decrease in visceral fat, and normalizing cholesterol and blood pressure.
No External Assessment
According to Pharmacally, Dr. Timothy Garvey, one of the researchers behind the study, is a scientific advisor to Caliway, the company behind the drug. So far, the results are reported by the company, and no independent experts have reviewed the drug’s efficacy and safety.
Why Should You Be Concerned?
People are getting excited about the news of a drug that decreases deep belly fat because cases of suffering from it are true.
You should be concerned about deep belly fat because they are linked to health risks when you have lots of it.
This is regardless of your body type. What matters is how you’ll deal with it.
Do you need to wait for those injections?
What if you’ll never see it being sold in drugstores soon?
There are ways to deal with the deep belly fat without the injection’s help. Even if all goes well, it will likely take years before it reaches pharmacies. Drug experiments aren’t always successful.
Instead of putting all your hopes on it, here are some health tips that help you deal with the visceral fat:
- Move More: A review of 40 trials involving 2,190 adults confirmed that cutting calories and exercising helps reduce visceral fat. The same publication said that interval training and aerobic exercise support metabolic health and muscle build-up. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some easy ways to lose weight by walking.
- Eat a Well-balanced Diet: Harvard Health suggests that a well-balanced diet can help you achieve a healthy weight. Avoid doing a crash diet or consumption challenges that you’ll later abandon. Make eating a well-balanced diet a habit. Cutting back on added sugar is a good start, too. Here’s what happens when you stop eating sugar for a month.
- Get Quality Sleep: Harvard Health also acknowledges that regularly sleeping less than 5 hours a night increases deep belly fat. It’s time to end your blue screen habit at night.
- Measure and Monitor Your Waist: Another way to track visceral fat is to measure and monitor your waist more often. From there, you’ll learn to build habits to reduce visceral fat effectively.
Understanding the Entire Scenario
Imagine Mark and John.
Mark weighs a little more but sleeps well and walks almost every day.
On the other hand, John weighs less but eats takeout, sleeps less than five hours, and sits all day.
Although John may look physically healthy on the weighing scale, he may have more deep belly fat.
That’s why doctors assess your health in the bigger picture, not just one aspect.
Don’t Wait for the Future When You Can Prevent Now
The CBL-514 could be the future of weight loss solutions, next to the GLP-1 drugs many people already know.
But reality strikes: assessment of its efficacy feels premature, incomplete, and far from over.
Currently, it’s being tested in a trial with fewer subjects. Better results in earlier trial phases don’t mean it will withstand until the end.
Hidden belly fat is the real deal, whether through injection or lifestyle change.
But because we aren’t fully aware of the side effects of CBL-514, we can’t fully put our hopes on it. Lifestyle change through healthy habits remains effective and safe.
Don’t wait for CBL-514 in the future, or if it truly happens. Start making big changes to improve your health while you still can.