Trimming your midriff helps you live longer and looks amazing. Larger waistlines increase heart disease, diabetes, and cancer risk. Weight loss, especially belly fat, improves blood vessel function and sleep.
Dieting cannot target belly fat. However, Kerry Stewart, Ed.D., director of Clinical and Research Physiology at Johns Hopkins, says that losing weight will not only shrink your waistline but also reduce visceral fat, which is invisible but dangerous.
After six months on a low-carbohydrate diet with the same number of calories, Johns Hopkins researchers found that those on a low-carb diet lost 28.9 pounds, compared to 18.7 pounds on a low-fat diet. Stewart believes the low-carb diet generated better weight reduction.
Stewart recommends sticking to a healthy diet. Low-carb includes learning to eat healthier, not tracking calories. Low-carb diets emphasize high-fiber, high-protein meals like vegetables, legumes, and healthy meats over problem foods like bread, bagels, and soda.
Exercise burns belly fat. Stewart: “One of the biggest benefits of exercise is that you get a lot of bang for your buck on body composition. He says exercise burns belly fat because it lowers insulin levels, which tell the body to store fat, and causes the liver to use up fatty acids, especially those near visceral fat deposits.
Even moderate strength training with aerobic exercise builds lean muscle mass, which burns more calories at rest and during exercise.
Brand comparison. Stewart adds some yogurts claim to be reduced in fat yet have more carbs and added sugars. Gravy, mayonnaise, sauces, and salad dressings are heavy in fat and calories.
Packaged products and snack meals often contain trans fats, added sugar, and salt or sodium, which make weight loss harder.
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