Belly Fat Not Your Problem Until Now. It's Making Up For Lost Time. What's Up?

Belly Fat That's Buried Deep Inside Your Abdomen, Is A "Killer" Fat

This type of belly fat puts you at higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancers......

How does belly fat come about?

There're many causes - hormonal changes, hereditary or aging-related weight gain.

As you grow older and especially after menopause, you could find yourself fighting to keep off a mid-section bulge that seems to whack out of control.....

As you start to deposit fat mostly in your belly (or mid-section), it's real big time unhealthy for you when compared to having fat deposited in other parts of your body.

See, excess belly fat increases your risk of:

Heart disease

Breast cancer

Diabetes

Metabolic syndrome

Gallbladder problems

High blood pressure

Colorectal cancer

Let's see what happens when fat accumulates in your belly......

As you grow older, your metabolism slows. This leads to fat slowly building up in your body. For us ladies, we get it worse than men since we experience a greater fat percentage increase.

And then, when menopause hits, your body cracks up a shift in fat distribution � less in your arms, legs and hips, and more in your belly.

You may think: " Well, belly fat? isn't it that belt of fat which I can grab with my hand, that's what matters?"

N-o-o-o......

It's the fat that you can't see - that's buried deep inside your abdomen, surrounding your abdominal organs, the so-called visceral fat, that matters, that should be your real concern.

This is the type of fat that is linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancers.

The fat that you can see, that you can grab with your hand (also known as subcutaneous fat, located between the skin and the abdominal wall), is less likely to bring you health risk.

Slow metabolism and lack of exercise or activity, surprisingly, won't contribute directly to growth of this visceral fat.

The main culprit may be traced to your hereditary traits as you may have simply inherited a disposition to accumulate fat in your mid-section.

Of course, hormone also tends to have a hand in it too, particularly hormonal changes that take place after menopause may change the way your body breaks down and stores fat (as we've already seen - you tend to accumulate more fat in your belly).

You could even experience a widening waist without gaining any weight. This is because though you may not gain extra fat, your abdominal fat is increasing while your thigh and hip fat are decreasing.

If you're of normal weight but much of the fat is concentrated in your mid-section, it's unhealthy for you too.

Research and studies found that abdominal fat cells aren't just sitting there dormant, waiting to be torched off. They're active, producing hormones and other substances that can affect your health.

For example, some fat-cell-produced hormones can promote insulin resistance, a precursor to type II diabetes; others can produce estrogen after menopause, which may increase your breast cancer risk.

Note: Research are still going on in regards to how the excess hormones affect overall health, but one thing's certain: that too much visceral fat can upset the body's normal hormonal balance

You know fat's accumulating in your mid-section. Do you ever wonder whether it's a healthy or unhealthy amount?

Well, you can calculate your body mass index (BMI) or waist-hip ratio to know the answer.

But one snag here, BMI may not be an accurate measure of body fat percentage or fat distribution, particularly after menopause.

There's one other way of measuring belly fat - by simply measuring your waist. It can tell you whether you've healthy or unhealthy amount of belly fat.

Try it. Here's how to do it.

Circle a tape measure round your mid-section at about the level of your navel.

Breathe normally, don't hold your tummy in, and don't pull the tape so tight that it presses your skin down.

If you're of healthy weight, a waist measurement of 35 inches or more indicates an unhealthy accumulation of belly fat.

(P/S: Some research studies have found that a measurement of 33 inches or more, no matter what your weight, increases your health risks)

How do you slice off the belly fat?

You'd think it's hard to exercise to get rid of the visceral fat since it's buried deep in your abdomen.

Another surprise for you - as it turns out, visceral fat responds well to a regular exercise routine and a healthy diet.

Let's go for the exercise first.

I think high intensity cardio exercise and interval training are the best ways to lose your belly fat.

Examples of high intensity cardio exercises: jumping rope, running, race walking, biking, cardio kickboxing, cardio dancing, step aerobics, jogging......

Interval training (IT) are short bursts of very intense cardio exercises.

For example, you could start off by including sprints in your jogging, adding jogging to your brisk walking or increasing the difficulty level or pace when on treadmill or stationary bike.

Couple IT with weight training to burn off even more fat and trim down your mid-section.

This is because weight traiing promotes muscle growth. As muscle raise your basal metabolic rate (i.e. you burn off calories even while resting) and burns off fat faster (3 times faster), the more muscle you've, the higher your metabolic rate and the faster you burn off fat.

Then throw in a routine to tone your abs. You can't "spot-burn" belly fat but you can definitely firm up your abs muscles and get a flatter belly. Traditional sit-ups aren't the most effective way though.

Pilates, I'd say, is the best abs cruncher and toner around, in fact, the most effective exercise.

In every exercise movement, the sheer act of pulling-in your navel back against your spine, is enough to get your abs flatten to sexier shape.......

Now, we come to the healthy diet part .

Start by improving the quality of food you eat. No more processed carbohydrates, no more sugar, no more deep-fried foods, no more fast food, and no more sodas or juices.

Do you know that simply by making these changes will help you lose belly fat fast, and you'll drop your body fat percentage in just days?

Try it!

Belly fat is unhealthy and a real risk to your health.

Beat it because you can! You don't need hurculean effort to do it.

Just 3 weapons: cardio exercise, weight training and healthy diet.

You'll be charting a healthier body fat percentage and sculpting a flatter, sexier mid-section!

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