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What If Your Not Losing Weight? What Now

If you’re not losing weight despite exercising and changing your diet, you’re probably frustrated, discouraged, and maybe even depressed. Weight loss is a complex process involving a variety of factors we control, such as diet, exercise, activity levels, stress, and sleep habits, and some we can’t control, such as genes, gender, hormones, age, and body type.

The first thing to check is medical problems you might have. How long has it been since you had a check-up? Are You taking any Medications? It’s possible your medications are the problem. Your doctor can change your meds. So if none of that pertains to you read on.

You may need to work harder to lose weight and be extra careful with your diet. Keep a food diary, monitor changes in your weight, and let your doctor know if you gain more than 5 pounds in a month without any changes to your diet or exercise.

More on what to do if you can’t lose weight: Assess Your Diet | Assess Your Workouts | Assess Your Situation and Lifestyle | Assess Your Expectations

The most important factor in weight loss is how many calories you’re eating versus how many calories you’re burning. Even if you think you’re being very good with your diet, it is easy to underestimate how many calories you’re actually eating. If you have had so much success in weight loss it’s normal to cheat a little, that’s why you have to keep a food log. It’s easy to lose track of the calories you’re actually eating. So, if you are stuck at a plateau it might be your food.

Research has found that most of us underestimate how much we’re eating, especially when we eat out. One research paper published in JAMA mentioned a study in which 99% of over 190 adults underestimated calories in high-caloric food. For example, when assessing fettuccine alfredo or chicken fajitas, the subjects often underestimated calories by 463 to 956, a huge difference and one that could easily sabotage your weight loss goals.

Careful scrutiny of your diet is the only way to know what you’re really eating:

Determine how many calories you need – You can use an online calculator to determine how many calories you need.
Keep a food diary – Use a printed form or an online tracking program, such as Calorie Count or FitWatch. Keep this diary every day for at least a week, being as specific as possible: Measure your portions, read food labels, or access nutritional information if you’re eating out.
Analyze your diet – Online tracking websites will often give you an overview of how many calories you’re eating as well as a breakdown of different nutrients. You can also turn an objective eye to your overall eating habits and look for ways to cut calories. Could you eat out less? Find healthier substitutes for some of your staple foods like yogurt, bread, cheese, another dairy, and chips? Find new, low-calorie recipes? You might even consider working with a registered dietician who can make more specific recommendations.
Keep in mind that you may have to continue keeping a food diary every day to stay on track. Successful weight losers regularly monitor both their eating habits and weight to avoid gaining weight. It may seem like a hassle but, if you really want to lose weight, it’s a must.

Exercise is another crucial element to weight loss, along with your daily activity levels, but it’s hard to know if you’re doing the right workouts or burning enough calories.

Start by looking at your overall program to get a sense of how much you’re exercising. For weight loss, experts often recommend up to 60-90 minutes of exercise each day. If you’re not even close to that, this gives you a place to start as you work through your plateau.

This doesn’t mean you have to start working out for 2 hours a day. In fact, that’s a bad idea if you’re not used to that level of exertion and could lead to injury, burnout, or overtraining.

What it does mean is that you need to make a very important decision: Either you need to increase your workout time and intensity to match your weight loss goals or you need to change your weight loss goals to match what you’re actually doing.

Don’t forget, it’s not just about structured exercise. Working out for an hour doesn’t cancel out the next 8 or 9 hours of sitting (something many of us do). In addition to exercise, try to be as active as you can: Take regular breaks from the computer, take walks whenever possible, stretch, wear a pedometer to see how many extra steps you can get in, limit your TV time, etc. If you spend more than 8 hours sitting, that could be one more reason you’re having trouble losing weight.

Diet, exercise, and physical activity are all crucial elements in weight loss. However, there might be other contributing factors that make it harder to lose weight. If you’re not losing weight, access your situation and lifestyle for other contributing factors such as:

Age – It’s frustrating, but one side effect of aging is slower weight loss. After 40, your metabolism starts slowing down and hormonal changes (for women, menopause and for men, andropause) make it harder to lose weight. That doesn’t mean you can’t lose weight, just that you may need to adjust your expectations for a more realistic timeline.
Gender – Men usually have more muscle than women and, as a result, often lose weight faster.
Genes – Some people are genetically predisposed to be obese. Our genes regulate how our bodies store and burn the energy we get from food and, for some of us, our genes have a tendency to hustle those calories into the body, lock them in and throw away the key. If you have a family history of obesity, there may be a genetic component that makes weight loss harder. However, that doesn’t mean you’re at the mercy of your genes or that you can’t lose weight. In fact, studies show that exercise can actually offset this weight problem.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

What Is Visceral Fat And How To Get Rid Of It

A great post from VeryWell.com tells us about the different fats in our body and which ones are dangerous to our health. Read all of this one, stomach fat is what causes your health problem when you age. If you intend to see your grandchildren grow up and maybe get married, the best advice I can give you is to stay thin and eat well. Good food is more expensive but you don’t have to eat as much.

Visceral fat is adipose tissue (fat tissue) that surrounds your vital organs. Visceral adipose tissue is located deep inside your body and is sometimes referred to as belly fat. If you have too much visceral fat, you may be at higher risk for certain health conditions and diseases. Belly fat will double your risk for diseases and cancer that affect your organs.

The Definition of Visceral

Since visceral fat is often called belly fat, you might wonder why we use the term “visceral” to describe it.

The reason is that there are two different kinds of fat in your belly and visceral fat is only one of them.

In a health setting, the word visceral means in or near your vital organs (your viscera). These are the organs deep in your gut, like your stomach and your intestines. Visceral muscles are found in the walls of your visceral organs. Visceral fat surrounds those organs. Since your vital organs are located in your midsection, visceral fat accumulates in the area around your belly.

But not all belly fat is visceral fat. There is another kind of fat called subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is located underneath the skin. This kind of fat is located all over your body and is important for your body to function properly.

Health Risks Associated With Visceral Obesity

If you have too much visceral fat, you have a condition called visceral obesity. Doctors sometimes call this condition visceral adiposity.

While too much of any kind of fat can be dangerous, there are certain health risks associated with having too much visceral fat.

Patients with visceral obesity are at higher risks for several conditions, including:

insulin resistance
glucose intolerance
high cholesterol
high blood pressure
heart disease

How to Measure Visceral Fat

In some health clubs or educational settings, a clinician might estimate your visceral fat by taking a waist measurement. Your belly measurement can provide insight into the amount of fat that you are carrying around your vital organs. You can also measure your own belly fat at home.

To get the best measurement, use a flexible tape measure. Wrap it around the widest part of your stomach, across your belly button. The tape measure should rest gently on your skin; not so loose that it falls away and not so tight that it digs into your skin. Once the tape measure is positioned correctly, breathe in and then take the measurement on the exhale.

Men and women have different numbers that may indicate visceral adiposity.

Men: A waist measurement greater than 40 inches
Women: A waist measurement greater than 35 inches
If your waistline indicates a higher risk for visceral adiposity, talk to your doctor. Your health care team can do more extensive diagnostic tests to accurately measure your visceral fat so that you are able to better predict your risk for a disease.

How to Lose Visceral Fat

It’s not uncommon to have belly fat that you want to lose. Whether the fat around your midsection is visceral fat or subcutaneous fat, your plan will be the same. To lose fat, you need to increase your daily activity and reduce your food intake. You might see pills and supplements advertised online that claim to reduce belly fat, but most of those products don’t work – and some can even be dangerous.

If you’re concerned about belly fat, talk to your doctor. He or she can explain how visceral fat affects your specific risk for disease. Knowing these facts about your health might help you to make the changes necessary to reduce your visceral fat, reach a safer weight and keep a trim midsection.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Change How You Eat And Lose Weight

When it comes to ways to lose weight, most of us tend to think in terms of “what” not “how,” meaning we frame weight loss in terms of what we should eat and shouldn’t eat instead of how we eat. While what we eat is extremely important to our general health and maintenance of a healthy weight, how we eat can be an incredibly influential factor in our ability to lose weight as well.

By making simple changes in the way you eat, you can avoid hundreds of mindless calories a day. These ten weight loss tips may feel a bit strange at first, but keep doing them until they become a habit and you will start to see the benefits.

Slow Down

It is very typical in our culture of fast food and hurried weekday lunches to eat too fast. Though it may be a time-saver, it won’t save your waistline. It takes up to 20 minutes before the stomach can tell the brain that it is full, yet the average meal lasts only about 10 minutes. The unfortunate result is that we eat far more than we need, which puts us at risk of being overweight or obese. If slowing down can save 100 calories a day, that could add up to a pound of weight loss a month. That’s better than adding a pound a month.

Small Plates

A scoop of mashed potatoes looks small on our oversized dinner plates. Put your food on small, 9-inch plates and your serving sizes will be more accurate. This simple trick can convince your brain into thinking that you have “eaten enough,” saving you another couple hundred calories a day.

Sit at the Table

We can consume hundreds of calories of cookies and chips while browsing in the pantry or grabbing a quick snack. These calories add up. Eat every single bite of food while sitting at the table. The extra effort will scare off weak cravings and allow you to truly assess how much you are eating.

Only Eat from a Plate

Resolve to only eat from a plate. Eating from bags, shared dishes (like chips or popcorn bowls), or straight from the container hides how much we are really eating. Take the time to place all the food you eat on a plate to help regulate portion sizes. That’s the better way to eat. We have become used to “grazing and not eating meals”, not good. That’s a recipe for adding fat to your body. Small meals more frequently are better. It keeps you from getting hungry.

Move the Serving Dishes

Do not put serving dishes on the table. Doing so makes it far too easy to have a second or third scoop before you let your brain catch up to your stomach. Leave the serving dishes in the kitchen. You can still have seconds, you just have to get up to get them.

Eat Better Desserts

Become a dessert gourmand. Eat only the finest, most expensive desserts you can find and afford. You will eat less and enjoy them more. The cookie and candy aisle in the grocery store is filled with sugary things that don’t really taste that good. If you need to feed your sweet tooth, find some $4 truffles and relish them (in moderation).

Your ancestors, 1000 years ago, ate fruit for dessert, smart.

Eat Often

Eat less at meals but tell yourself you can go back in a few hours for more food if you need to. Have trail mix, nuts, yogurt, and other snacks handy. Try to decrease the amount of food you need to feel satisfied at a meal. Many nutritionists swear by an eating schedule closer to the following:

• Breakfast
• Mid-morning snack (make this a second breakfast)
• Lunch (eat half a lunch)
• Mid-afternoon snack (eat the other half)
• Dinner

Eat When You Eat

When you eat, eat. Do not watch TV, read a newspaper, talk on the phone, or drive a car. Just eat. Pay attention to your food. Monitor your servings. Distraction will only lead to automatic eating. That said, sitting down to a meal with a friend or family member to chat with can be a good tool for slowing down, so don’t shy away from healthy lunch dates.

Liquid Calories

Examine the number of calories you drink. You can usually cut out hundreds of calories a day by eliminating sodas, juices, sweetened coffee drinks, and alcohol. Keep a log of everything you drink and then add up the calories. You might be surprised by how many of your calories each day are liquid. We used to think that drinking juice was healthy and then we saw that it was loaded with calories. Low-calories diets generally are about 1200 or 1600 calories a day, so don’t drink your calories. Save your calories for solid food.

Instead, try substituting with water. If you’re in the need of a little caffeine or flavor, try a cup of hot or iced tea. You might also want to consider skipping the diet sodas and drinks as well. While they have little to no calories, the sweet taste only makes your brain and body crave sugar more. Do yourself a favor and drink water instead.

Crave from Your Plate at the Table

When you have cravings, first try to wait at least 5 minutes. If you are still craving the food, do the following: get a small plate, put a few bites of the craved item on the plate (no more than one serving – read the label!). Then put the package away, take your plate to the table, and eat your food without distraction. Ask yourself if it is worth it. Usually, a craving is for salt or sugar. You can satisfy that craving with healthy food like a hard-boiled egg with a little salt. Trying to lose weight is an awesome task. You should cut out salt and sugar, but because that’s hard to do, cut back to almost nothing. Add a little sugar to some tea. When you try these tricks a couple of times you’ll realize how little you need to make that craving disappear.

You may also try to find some healthier substitutions for certain cravings. You might be surprised how satisfying the sweetness of Medjool dates or eating a few grapes can help.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

Obesity Is 3x More Deadly For Men

Most Americans still think Obesity is for the seriously overweight, those people that are 400 pounds or more. It’s not true if your body mass is 30% fat you’re considered to be Obese. I found this post in a newsletter I received the other day.

(HealthDay News) — Obesity is nearly three times more deadly for men than it is for women, new research suggests.

In a study of nearly 4 million men and women around the globe, the risk of dying before the age of 70 was 19 percent for men and 11 percent for women of normal weight.

But that risk jumped to 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, for obese men and women. That’s an absolute increased risk of 11 percent for men and 4 percent for women, the researchers reported.

Why do women have less risk? Women are able to carry more because they can give childbirth. Their system protects them almost all their lives from weight problems.

“Obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of premature death in America,” said lead researcher Richard Peto of Oxford in England. So how do you tell if you're obese? The easy way might be to ask your doctor, but if you want to know right now a good indicator is to measure your waist. The rule of thumb used to be “if your waist measures 40 inches. But so many people don’t measure their waist properly so it’s not very actuated. Then science came up with another way. If your waist measure more than half your height your overweight, but that still means that it depends on who is measuring. The right way to measure your waist is to start at the naval and measure around the body and back to the naval.

Every inch you can lose around your waist and you’ll become healthier. Your heart benefits the most, but you will lose weight and increase your energy level.

“If you could lose about 10 percent of your weight, a woman would knock 10 percent off the risk of dying before she was 70, and for a man, it would knock about 20 percent off,” Peto said.

Why obese men are at greater risk for premature death than women isn’t clear.

“Our study was not able to address this question, but previous observations have suggested that obese men have greater insulin resistance, liver fat levels, and diabetes risk than women,” said study co-author Dr. Emanuele Di Angelantonio, a lecturer at the University of Cambridge in England.

The British and Canadians do a lot more research on your health in general than we do in the U.S. because both countries have National Healthcare and anything that drives up the cost of healthcare will increase their taxes.

One U.S. expert said more research is needed to explore the apparent link between obesity and mortality.

Avoiding obesity has clear advantages for both men and women, Graubard said. “In addition, we know from other studies that physical activity can reduce mortality risk,” he said.

In the new study, researchers collected data on 3.9 million adults, aged 20 to 90. The information came from 189 previous studies in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. The investigators included data on all those who lived at least another five years. Over the time of the study, nearly 400,000 participants died. The study findings showed that underweight people were also at risk for premature death.

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 billion adults worldwide are overweight, and 600 million more are obese. And, obesity has been strongly linked in previous research to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, the researchers said.

This study overcomes many of the limitations of earlier efforts and “renders a clear and emphatic verdict — obesity increases the risk of premature death around the globe,” Katz said.

This study also indicates that the risk extends across the full range of overweight and obesity — the more severe the obesity, the graver the danger of early death.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

What's The Secret To Losing Weight

I get this same question over and over again in my inbox. So I’m writing this post to give some answers to those who haven’t been successful.

So you’re finally ready to lose weight. Now the question is: How?

The standard advice — to eat less and move more — isn’t so helpful when it comes to the “how.” You probably know you need to cut calories, but how many? Are you better off getting those calories from low-fat or low-carb foods? And what’s going on with your metabolism, your personal energy-burning furnace? Is it programmed to keep you overweight? Is there any way to fan the flames so you can dream of one day eating a piece of pie without gaining a pound?

Even science is still stumped on many of the basic questions of weight loss.

“Amazingly, in this era of obesity, there are still many things that medicine really doesn’t know,” says Robin Callister, Ph.D., professor of human physiology at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Here’s what we do know about some of the most persistent mysteries of weight loss.

Do You Have to Cut 3,500 Calories to Lose a Pound?

The idea that dieters need to cut this many calories — with diet, exercise, or both — to lose 1 pound of weight comes from an influential scientific paper published in 1958. Max Wishnofsky, MD, a doctor who lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., tried to sum up everything we knew about how calories are stored by the body. He concluded that when the body is in a steady caloric state — meaning it isn’t fasting or starving — extra calories will be stored as fat, and it would take 3,500 extra calories to create a pound of fat. In that same steady state, he also said it would take a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound of weight. For decades, the “Wishnofsky Rule” has been math that determined dieters live by.

The trouble is that it’s wrong.

The 3,500-calorie rule doesn’t work because the body adjusts to weight loss. It quickly decreases the number of calories it needs to maintain its new, lighter size, says Corby Martin, Ph.D., director of the Ingestive Behavior Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA. That means weight loss slows down over time. People who expect to drop a pound for every 3,500 calories they cut will soon become frustrated when the scale doesn’t cooperate.

Let’s say a dieter knows they need to eat 2,500 calories a day to maintain their current weight. But they want to slim down. So they decide to shave 500 calories off their daily intake. According to the Wishnofsky Rule, after about a week of doing that, they should lose a pound.

“For the first week or two, the 3,500 calorie-per-pound rule kind of works, roughly, but after the first couple of weeks it doesn’t work,” Martin says.

Here’s why: In 3 or 4 weeks, you need less food to maintain that new, slimmer shape. I know you only lost a couple pounds and if you might only have to lose 10 pounds, you’re going to plateau several times. The problem with this formula is that we don’t have the same food today that we had in 1958. Believe me, I was there, I just started high school. In those days farmers did use pesticides to control bugs but we didn’t chemically engineer our food like we do today. It’s chemically engineered food that will cause food addiction and furthermore cause obesity.

Forget cutting back on the food your eating; you have to go back to eating fresh foods. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, it’s best to buy organic. The ration is the red meat your eating; it’s marbled with fat and it’s causing you to increase your body fat. Seafood and chicken or turkey are a better choice. Never eat tube meat or any other processed or manufactured food. If you don’t eat foods that add to your body fat, your body will burn the stored fat you have.

Are All Calories Equal?

Fujioka counsels his patients to pay attention to how alcohol affects their eating.

“Some folks, when they drink alcohol, feel like they have a license to eat whatever they want to, and they get into problems,” he says.

If a glass of wine weakens your will to resist that plate of cheese and crackers, it’s not doing your waistline any favors.

But if booze doesn’t affect your eating, then one or two drinks are probably OK, he says.

As for calories from fat, carbohydrates, and protein, this is where one size, or one eating plan, really doesn’t fit all.

There is good science to show that people who have high blood sugar levels — associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and fatty liver disease — benefit from diets that are lower in refined carbohydrates and higher in healthy fats and lean proteins. Examples of this kind of diet are South Beach, the Zone diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the low GI diet.

If insulin levels aren’t a concern, there’s little difference in the number of weight people lose if they cut their calories from fat or from carbs, says Kevin Hall, Ph.D., a senior investigator and expert in metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, MD. But he says protein calories are a different story.

In the lab, researchers have shown that higher-protein diets tend to increase the number of calories a person burns, Hall says. “So in that sense, a protein calorie is not equivalent to a carbohydrate or a fat calorie,” he says.

Protein helps you burn more calories during the day and helps preserve muscle. When people lose weight, they don’t just lose fat — they also lose muscle. The more muscle you lose on a diet, the more your metabolism slows. That can make it tough to keep the weight off down the road. Protein also helps you feel satisfied for longer after you eat.

But people can eat only so much protein without changing their kidney function. U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that adults keep their protein in a range of 10% to 35% of total calories each day. Most diets fall into that range. Atkins, for example, one of the highest protein diets around, supplies 35% of daily calories from protein.

Weight loss is a mystery to some of us because we don’t know how we gain excess body fat, so we don’t know what we have to do to lose the fat. Most of us think if we can just lose some weight the fat will disappear, but it doesn’t work that way and that’s why most of us give up trying.

Change the food your eating and you will lose weight. In other words, stop eating the foods and stop drinking anything with calories and try eating foods on the “food pyramid”.

There are three categories with lots of choices so pick your foods and drinks from the food pyramid. In the “Daily” section you can eat every day, the “weekly” means only once a week and the “monthly” means only once a month. No need to count calories on this diet just stick to the pyramid.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.

What Is Visceral Fat And How To Get Rid Of It

Visceral fat is adipose tissue (fat tissue) that surrounds your vital organs. Visceral adipose tissue is located deep inside your body and is sometimes referred to as belly fat. If you have too much visceral fat, you may be at higher risk for certain health conditions and diseases. Belly fat will double your risk for diseases and cancer that affect your organs.

The Definition of Visceral

Since visceral fat is often called belly fat, you might wonder why we use the term “visceral” to describe it.

The reason is that there are two different kinds of fat in your belly and visceral fat is only one of them.

In a health setting, the word visceral means in or near your vital organs (your viscera). These are the organs deep in your gut, like your stomach and your intestines. Visceral muscles are found in the walls of your visceral organs. Visceral fat surrounds those organs. Since your vital organs are located in your midsection, visceral fat accumulates in the area around your belly.

But not all belly fat is visceral fat. There is another kind of fat called subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is located underneath the skin. This kind of fat is located all over your body and is important for your body to function properly.

Health Risks Associated With Visceral Obesity

If you have too much visceral fat, you have a condition called visceral obesity. Doctors sometimes call this condition visceral adiposity.

While too much of any kind of fat can be dangerous, there are certain health risks associated with having too much visceral fat.

Patients with visceral obesity are at higher risks for several conditions, including:

insulin resistance
glucose intolerance
high cholesterol
high blood pressure
heart disease

How to Measure Visceral Fat

In some health clubs or educational settings, a clinician might estimate your visceral fat by taking a waist measurement. Your belly measurement can provide insight into the amount of fat that you are carrying around your vital organs. You can also measure your own belly fat at home.

To get the best measurement, use a flexible tape measure. Wrap it around the widest part of your stomach, across your belly button. The tape measure should rest gently on your skin; not so loose that it falls away and not so tight that it digs into your skin. Once the tape measure is positioned correctly, breathe in and then take the measurement on the exhale.

Men and women have different numbers that may indicate visceral adiposity.

Men: A waist measurement greater than 40 inches
Women: A waist measurement greater than 35 inches
If your waistline indicates a higher risk for visceral adiposity, talk to your doctor. Your health care team can do more extensive diagnostic tests to accurately measure your visceral fat so that you are able to better predict your risk for a disease.

How to Lose Visceral Fat

It’s not uncommon to have belly fat that you want to lose. Whether the fat around your midsection is visceral fat or subcutaneous fat, your plan will be the same. To lose fat, you need to increase your daily activity and reduce your food intake. You might see pills and supplements advertised online that claim to reduce belly fat, but most of those products don’t work – and some can even be dangerous.

If you’re concerned about belly fat, talk to your doctor. He or she can explain how visceral fat affects your specific risk for disease. Knowing these facts about your health might help you to make the changes necessary to reduce your visceral fat, reach a safer weight and keep a trim midsection.

Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight".

If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.