Lose belly fat & harmful & hidden visceral fat....

Today's Post: Thursday, 12-17-2009

Too much abdominal or belly fat causes many hassles; and the hidden & harmful visceral fat related to it both is an indicator of the harmful actions and health problems that created it and itself is a direct cause of health problems.

Too much abdominal or belly fat can cause you to outgrow clothes you like or once looked good in. It can literally restrict your breathing enough to cause difficulties breathing and even tends to cause asthma. It can make it hard to keep your pants up without wearing suspenders or braces. And, it doesn’t look that great.

The visceral fat that is internal and hidden and related to belly fat is actually dangerous past a minimal point. Both the things that cause it and the effects of the chemical messengers it sends to your body are associated with high blood pressure; high blood sugar -- or type 2 diabetes if your blood sugar gets too high; chronic inflammation; and cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks. It’s even associated with increased risk of many cancers.

Surprisingly, a recent study even found excess visceral fat in people who didn’t look “fat” and were actually at what is considered normal weight.

Worse, if you have too much belly fat and visceral fat, if you don’t actively take steps to remove or decrease it, you’ll gradually get even more of it! Yechh!

The good news is that you can stop getting more and begin to get rid of it with things that are doable for most people.

Even better, you can get rid of it and keep it off even more easily than the fat just underneath the skin that is in other locations on your body.

1. A recent study reported in the Parade Magazine of Sunday, 12-6-2009 showed that 80 minutes a week of either strength training or aerobic exercise were able take some of it off with the exercise alone. (The control group that did no exercise kept adding more of it instead!)

Other studies have found that it may actually work slightly better to do 13 to 15 minutes of such exercise 6 or 7 days a week instead of the two 40 minute sessions each week that the researchers used in this study.

That means if you do 13 to 15 minutes of strength training or interval cardio on 6 or 7 mornings a week just before breakfast, it will work well.

Going to a gym for 40 minutes can be good too & a great idea if you can do it in addition. But if you haven’t the time or the money to fit it in or can’t go every week, you very likely can do the 15 minutes each morning at home.

2. The Parade article also mentioned eating more fiber as also helping to avoid adding more belly and visceral fat.

But this misses some more effective ways to go.

Eating more nonstarchy vegetables and some fresh fruit and beans or lentils works a good bit better than eating more high fiber bread.

And, virtually stopping eating any foods made from refined grains and cutting WAY back on your sugar intake is essential. Eliminating all soft drinks is so effective it’s virtually essential also.

Yes, those changes in eating do dramatically increase your fiber intake.

But they also cut calories from your diet without making you hungrier.

And, of key importance, they are much lower glycemic and cause dramatically less too rapid increases in your blood sugar. That plus the vigorous exercise turning off or turning down insulin resistance will result in much lower average blood levels of insulin.

That’s a huge asset, because when your insulin levels are too high, your body ADDS belly and visceral fat.

3. A third way to lower belly fat and visceral fat is to eat mostly omega 9 or monosaturated fat instead of saturated fat or omega 6 oils. This too reduces insulin levels.

(Omega 9 or monosaturated fats are in extra virgin olive oil, nuts, and avocados.)

This means eating less grain foods, to some degree even eating less whole grain foods, and NEVER eating refined grain foods; and not using or eating high omega 6 oils such as corn oil, soy oil, safflower oil, or canola oil.

Since meat from grain fed animals is unnaturally high in saturated fat, total fat, AND omega 6 oils from the grains they are fed, it means NOT eating such meat; eating far less of it; &/or only eating such meat in its leanest and most fat trimmed forms.

Meat from animals fed ONLY grass or their natural diet; wild caught fish, nuts, nonfat and very lowfat dairy foods, and beans & lentils along with some eggs or whey or egg based protein supplements work far better to give you protein without adding to your belly fat than meat from grain fed animals.

It’s also worth noting that adding such exercises and making these changes to eating better have been shown to directly help you lose all your fat; lower high blood pressure; and lower your measures of blood sugar if they are too high.

Then after you’ve done them long enough to have less belly and visceral fat, all these health improvements get even better.

If you still have too much belly fat after making these changes to lose that fat, you may well have to lower your caloric intake a bit more in a way that avoids triggering your body’s famine response, find a way to do more physical activity and exercise; &/or take certain supplements.

We are working on an eBook and on other ways to help people do just that. But it is a bit more complex and takes longer to describe.

However, the 3 steps above may be all you need to do the job in your particular case.

And, even if they are not, they will dramatically protect your health virtually from when you start doing them; & they are the indispensible foundation for doing more as well.