Want to Lose Belly Fat?

Tired of looking down and seeing you ever widening belly? Besides detracting from your appearance and self-esteem; having a large stomach can be a sign of more serious health problems that can have a negative impact on your physical and emotional well-being. Medical professionals have produced numerous studies that confirm the more visceral fat a person has; the greater the likelihood a person will suffer from obesity, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. To lose belly fat is not just about vanity; it’s about living a longer and healthier life!

Physical exercises like crunches and sit ups are only so effective in the battle to lose belly fat. They serve a great purpose in building abdomen muscle, but do little to lose belly fat. Those who are serious about weight loss know that diet plays a more crucial role in reducing waist circumference.

Do I need to lose belly fat?

How do you know if you have too much belly fat? Dr. Michael Jensen with the Mayo Clinic explained in a recent article about body fat that according to the index of central obesity, an average male should not have a waist circumference greater than 40 inches, and females should have a waist circumference less than 35.6 inches. Any person whose waist measurement is greater than that will drastically increase their likelihood of illnesses like metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, and heart disease. When faced with such life threatening conditions, a non-aggressive weight loss program is not a viable option.

Belly Fat: It’s all the same, right?

Surprisingly, no! There are few different types of body fat. Some fats are good while others are bad:

• Good structural fat that helps keep our organs in place.
• Good reserve fat that serves as fuel for muscular activity and helps maintain body temperance when we are in a cold environment.
• Bad, unnecessary padding around the belly, hips, thighs.

This third type of fat is one we want to lose, it is the unnecessary and unattractive padding that is found in our waists, thighs, and buttock, is an excess of visceral fat. Medical books often call this adipose tissue. We just call it belly fat and it is almost impossible to get rid of with sit ups or other types of resistance exercises. This is the kind of fat that is not only displeasing to our society, but is dangerous hazardous to a person’s well-being.

Lose the Bad Fat: Lose Belly Fat

Belly fat is somewhat different that visceral fat found in other parts of our bodies. This fat is stuck deep inside our abdominal cavity which tends to make these fat cells more metabolically and biologically active. This central obesity mass tends to produce a greater amount of hormones and chemical messengers that together, can cause serious disorders such as chronic inflammation within the body. It is inflammation that is the cause of most major maladies humans can suffer. If you are concerned with maintaining a healthy physique and want to avoid cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic illnesses, losing belly fat should be very important to you!

If you suffer from abdominal obesity and have tried to lose weight by simply starving yourself, you will first lose the normal fat reserves, then structural fat. It is only when these two better fat types are depleted will the body yield its abnormal fat. However, you are also losing muscle by this stage of a starvation diet which is also very unhealthy. By this time you have grown so hungry that you dropped your diet. Unfortunately the fat you wanted to lose stays as a spare tire, and the fat and muscle you need to cover maintain your health is diminished. Simply stated, this is not the type of diet that will blast belly fat away and make you healthy.

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