Numerous studies have showed that the brain shrinks in size as a person’s weight and BMI (body mass index increases). For every two units your BMI exceeds 25, your left hippocampus shrinks by nearly 1 percent. Excess weight often leads to obesity and diabetes. These conditions destroy synapses, wither blood vessels in your brain, batter neural pathways and kill neurons. The final result is a smaller brain.

Brain diseases like Alzheimer’s are associated with early and fast hippocampus shrinkage. So at that rate a moderately obese man may tip into dementia two years earlier than a lean guy. Fat can produce inflammatory molecules that are toxic to neurons. One study found that the brains of obese people appeared to experts 16 years older than brains of lean people and the brains of overweight people looked 8 years older. Researchers classified this as a severe brain degeneration with serious implications for the aging process.

In the brains of obese people, the loss of brain volume appeared to most affect these parts of the brain: temporal lobes (language), the frontal (attention), the hippocampus (memory) and the anterior cingulated gyrus (mood). That means that any extra body weight is associated with a slight reduction in brain volume. Studies show, that especially extra abdominal fat had the greatest correlation with reduced brain volume and waist-to-hip ratio was associated with a smaller hippocampus. These contribute to decreased cognitive performance and a bigger risk of dementia.

Also inflammation can have effects on the brain. Adipose (fat) tissue is known to produce chemicals called cytokines which contribute to neurodegeneration. Adipose tissue contains immune system cells called macrophages and monocytes which are implicated in Alzheimer’s.

Whatever the mechanism, the recent findings have important health implications. Obesity is a major public health concern. There are about 300 million obese people and more than 1 billion overweight people around the world. At Cheetahfit, we administer weight training programs for weight loss with the added benefit of a movement and propioceptive focus. This challenges the brain function and neural patterning systems for further development and diminished degradation over time.    

Moving your body utilizing the correct, proven exercises is the best thing you can do for your brain and your weight. While the benefits of exercise have been known for a long time, the advantages for your brain have just been recently discovered.