APPARENTLY weight gain does not start at the hips or the stomach, but on the last place one would suspect – the tongue.

US physician Dr William Li recently shared the surprising fact with motivational author Mel Robbins on her podcast.

The clip from the interview was posted to TikTok, where it has attracted more than 3.5 million views.

When Robbins asked Dr Li to share something about weight gain “that nobody would know”, the scientist responded: “Weight gain does not start with your muffin top or your thighs; [it] starts in a very subtle way.”

“It’s the visceral fat…that’s inside our body, that starts to grow early.”

He explained that the back of the tongue is mostly visceral fat, and when a person starts to put on extra body fat, that is one of the first places it grows.

This can cause snoring in people who did not previously snore – long before the scales show any sign of weight gain.

“When you’re sleeping…your fat tongue starts to relax, and now it’s blocking your airway, so you wake up and you snort and you snore.”

Research backs up Dr Li’s claims, with scientists finding that people who are obese and suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea tend to carry far more fat in their tongues than those without the condition.

The good news is that sleep apnoea can improve significantly for obese patients who lose just 10% of their body weight.

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