Nancy Matos

Reader Question:

“Well it’s that time of year again: you are a little pale and the spare tire is a little bit bigger than it was in the fall and now you want to lose some weight and look better in those skin-showing summer clothes. “

Could you explain “spare tire”?

My comments: If you’ve ever glanced at diet and fitness magazines at the check-out stand, you may have spotted headlines emblazoned across the covers such as: “How to lose that spare tire” or “Get rid of your spare tire for good!” They are referring to that dreaded extra roll of fat that sits around the waistline. As it gives the appearance of a ring around the belly, it is sometimes referred to as a “spare tire”.

Other terms like “l(fā)ove handles” or “muffin top” also imply having excess flab around the waist.

Many individuals with “spare tires” are thin throughout the body and have a healthy weight in relation to their height, despite the thick part in their mid-section. But even though that ring of excess weight around the belly may not be that noticeable in relation to a lean physique, having a “spare tire” is a serious matter. Extra belly fat has been linked to cancer, strokes and heart disease. A study by European researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2008 suggested that people with “spare tires” have a higher risk of dying during a 10-year period than people who weighed the same without a “spare tire”.

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

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Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.