Your muscles could have 'streaky bacon fat' according to scientists - here's how to reverse it

Experts have found that our muscles can have secret stores of fat like the marbling in streaky bacon and it’s incredibly bad for heart health.

There is plenty of research on the dangers that holding excess fat around our middle and organs can have on our health, but now there’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that fat can be hiding within our muscles themselves.

These pockets, known as intermuscular fat, can put people at greater risk of conditions such as heart disease and type two diabetes – and experts say your BMI doesn’t have to be particularly high to have it.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School discovered that the level of fat found in muscles varies from person to person.

Professor Viviany Taqueti, a cardiologist, clinical investigator and Director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital, headed the research study which looked at 669 people who complained of chest pain or shortness of breath but had no blockages in their arteries.

In the participants, they measured the amount and the location of fat in their chest muscles, as well as their heart function.

Findings revealed that with every 1 per cent of fat increase in the muscles, there was a 2 per cent increase in the risk of damage to small blood vessels and a 7 per cent increase in the risk of developing heart disease.

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Meanwhile, those with lower rates of fat in the muscles had a 50 per cent reduced risk of heart problems and even death. However, the amount of fat in muscles couldn’t be predicted via BMI or their appearance.

“There was a wide range in the proportion of fat in muscles,” Professor Taqueti said. “Some people had less than 5 per cent while others with the identical BMI had over 25 per cent. These patients might look totally similar – you couldn’t be sure of their level of intermuscular fat by their appearance.”

Researchers say that a healthy lifestyle of regular exercise and a diet rich in nutritious foods may help with overall weight loss, which includes losing fat from muscles.

“We took two groups of older people between 70 and 89, one started a walking exercise programme, which they were encouraged to build up to five times a week, and the other group didn’t,” Dr Bret Goodpaster, scientific director at the Advent Health Translational Research Institute, said.

“After a year, those who exercised had not increased the fat levels in their thigh muscles while those who didn’t had.”

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