Keeping a trim midsection does more than make you look good --it can help you live longer. Larger waistlines are linked to a greater risk of heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. Losing weight, especially belly fat, also enhances blood vessel functioning and also improves sleep quality.
A middle aged man eating a watermelon slice in the center of a field.
It's impossible to target belly fat especially when you diet. But losing weight overall will help shrink your waist; more importantly, it is going to help reduce the dangerous layer of visceral fat, a sort of fat inside the abdominal cavity that you can't see but that heightens health risks, says Kerry Stewart, Ed.D., director of Clinical and Research Physiology at Johns Hopkins.
Here's how to whittle down where it matters most.
Try controlling carbs instead of fats.
When Johns Hopkins researchers compared the effects in the heart of losing weight through a low-carbohydrate diet versus a low-fat diet for six months--each containing the same amount of calories--people on a low-carb diet lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet--28.9 lbs versus 18.7 pounds. An excess benefit of this low-carb diet is that it produced a high quality of weight reduction, Stewart says. With weight loss, fat is reduced, but there is also often a loss of lean tissue (muscle), which isn't desirable. On both diets, there was a reduction of about 2 to 3 pounds of great lean tissue together with the fat, which means that the fat loss percentage was much greater on the low-carb diet.
Think eating plan, not diet.
Ultimately, you need to pick a healthful eating plan you can stick to, Stewart says. The benefit of a low-carb strategy is that it simply involves learning better food choices--no calorie-counting is essential. In general, a low-carb means of eating shifts your intake away from problem foods--those high in carbs and sugar and without a lot of fiber, such as bread, bagels and sodas--and toward high-fiber or low-fat choices, like vegetables, beans and healthful meats. "One of the biggest benefits of exercise is that you get a lot of bang for your buck on body composition," Stewart says. Exercise appears to burn belly fat particularly since it reduces circulating levels of insulin --which might otherwise signal the body to hang on to fat--and causes the liver to consume fatty acids, particularly those nearby visceral fat deposits, '' he says.
The amount of exercise you need for weight loss depends on your targets. For many people, this can mean 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise nearly every day.
Lift weights.
Adding even moderate strength training to aerobic exercise helps build lean muscle mass, which makes you burn more calories during the entire day, both at rest and during exercise.
Compare and contrast brands. Some yogurts, by way of instance, boast that they're low in fat, but they're high in carbs and added sugars than others, Stewart says. Foods such as gravy, mayonnaise, sauces and salad dressings often contain high levels of fat and plenty of calories.
Move away from processed foods.
The ingredients in packaged goods and snack foods are often heavy on trans fats, added sugar and added salt or sodium--three things that make it tough to lose weight.
Concentrate on the way your clothes fit more than reading a scale.
As you add muscle mass and lose fat, the reading on your bathroom scale may not change much, but your trousers will be looser. That's a much better mark of progress. Measured around, your waist should be less than 35 inches if you are a girl or less than 40 inches if you're a guy to decrease heart and diabetes risks.
Hang out with health-focused friends.
Research demonstrates that you are more apt to eat better and exercise more if your family and friends are doing the same.
Definitions
Insulin (in-suh-lin): A hormone produced by the cells in your pancreas. Insulin helps your body store the glucose (sugar) from your own meals. In case you have diabetes and your pancreas is unable to make enough of this hormone, you may be prescribed medications to help your liver make more or make your muscles more sensitive to the available insulin. If these medicines aren't enough, you may be prescribed insulin shots.
Blood vessels (veh-suls): The system of elastic tubes--arteries, capillaries and veins--which carries blood throughout the body. Oxygen and nutrients are delivered by arteries to tiny, thin-walled capillaries that feed them and pick up waste material, such as carbon dioxide.
Arteries (are-te-rease): The blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood away from your heart for delivery to each part of the body. Arteries seem like thin tubes or hoses. The walls are made from a tough outer layer, a middle layer of muscle and a smooth inner wall that helps blood flow easily. The muscle layer expands and contracts to help blood move.
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