Losing Weight Will Be Automatic

 Many people don’t understand that losing weight will become automatic once you get on the right diet.  Healthy foods, not the lack of food or skipping meals but just eating the right foods will give you newfound energy that you forgot you had. The energy to get moving again and that extra activity will burn more calories and the body fat will begin to melt away.

This won’t happen overnight, but changing your diet and eating healthy foods will almost immediately impact the amount of energy you have every day. It only takes a couple of weeks, and you’ll feel the difference. A healthy diet has many more benefits like you won’t be getting sick anymore, and you won’t have to take vitamin supplements. You’ll sleep better and getting more sleep will help you lose weight. You can also save a lot of money by cutting out vitamin pills and other supplements and spending your money on fresh foods.

You can do a search “powerhouse fruit and vegetables” to get a complete list and more info but in short:

Watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard, and beet greens are among the most nutrient-dense “powerhouse” vegetables, packing a huge dose of vitamins and minerals into every calorie. That’s important if you’re trying to lose weight because you still have to count calories.

At the same time, don’t expect to receive huge amounts of nutrition from raspberries, tangerines, garlic or onions, the findings suggest.

National nutrition guidelines emphasize the consumption of powerhouse fruits and vegetables, which are strongly associated with reduced risk of chronic diseases like cancer.

But until now, the study author noted, the nutritional value of veggies hasn’t been ranked in a way that would show which best qualifies as nutrient-dense powerhouse foods.

Higher-ranking foods in this study provide more nutrients per calorie. The scores may help focus consumers on their daily energy needs, and how best to get the most nutrients from their foods. The rankings provide clarity on the nutrient quality of the different foods and may aid in the selection of more nutrient-dense items within the powerhouse group.

The study calculated the nutrition contained in 47 fruits and veggies, finding that all but six met the criteria as a powerhouse food.

Cruciferae and dark green leafy vegetables dominate the top 10. They are, in order, watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard, and beet greens, followed by spinach, chicory, leaf lettuce, parsley, romaine lettuce, and collard greens.

All the top vegetables contain high levels of B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, riboflavin, niacin, and folate — nutrients that help protect people against cancer and heart disease, the researcher noted.

These have a lot of the B-vitamins and a lot of fiber in the leaves.  If you think about plants, that’s where they store their nutrients. Those green leafy vegetables have a lot of minerals vitamins and fiber in those leaves, and very few calories. These make the perfect food for dieters.

People who chop off the leafy part of vegetables such as celery, carrots, or beets are actually cutting away some very good nutrients.

The six fruits and vegetables that didn’t make the list as powerhouse foods are raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onions, and blueberries. While all contain vitamins and minerals, they are not densely packed with important nutrients, the study said.

The full list is published June 5 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease or you can find the list online.

Folks will get good nutrition from the powerhouse veggies whether they eat them raw or cook them, as long as they don’t boil them.

Fresh, you have 100 percent of the vitamins and minerals. When you cook it, you might lose a small percentage, but it’s not significant.

Boiling, however, can drain veggies of B vitamins, vitamin C, and other nutrients. Cooks who choose to boil spinach or collard greens should save the nutrient-rich water, either including a little with each serving or re-using the water in sauces or soups.

Vegetables are carbs and grains are carbs and carbs should be the biggest part of your diet with protein only about 20 or 25 percent of your diet. Grains need to be whole grain like some breads or oatmeal but the other carbs should come from veggies. Carbs can be the biggest problem with your diet. The wrong carbs will turn to fat almost instantly. Think about what you're eating and how long it takes you to lose fat.

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

Why Does “Quick Weight Loss” Always Come Back

 

Quick weight loss doesn’t reduce body fat. In fact, your BMI is likely to increase. Why is that? BMI is the percentage of body fat compared to Total Body Mass. So quick weight loss is actually reducing body mass. So losing weight quickly, like your first 10 pounds, usually is just water weight and the food you have stored in your digestive system. Your GI tract will hold a lot of food. It normally takes 3 days for your food to pass through your system.

Think about everything you eat in 3 days. That first 10 pounds is your first diet stage for most of us.  After that, your body takes a break and you stop losing. This is normal. Losing now becomes more difficult. You changed your eating habits and the body has to get used to it. Anytime we change our diet the body starts to hoard food until it realizes that you're not depriving the body of nutrition.

Think about your diet this way. Your body will send you signals to consume more until it gets all the nutrition it needs or until it’s full and can’t hold anymore. It’s the latter that causes weight gain. The body retains the food it can’t break down and use. That food it retains is stored in fat cells and you gain weight in the form of body fat. Most of this fat will never be used and the older it gets the harder it gets and the more difficult it is to get rid of. It’s much better for your body if you don’t add excess fat as an adult. Having extra fat will use up your energy. All body mass takes energy to maintain and even body fat has to be kept alive and that uses a part of your energy. So when you are overweight you get tired quicker, you spend more time sitting, and you're less active which only causes you to gain more weight.

It’s a continuing habit that’s caused by not eating the right foods. If you want to lose body fat and get healthy, “stop dieting”, and change the foods you eat and your body will burn your body. Your body burns protein, carbohydrates, and fats to create the energy that you need to live.  You need energy just to think, for your heart to pump, for you to talk, and you get the energy from the foods you eat. But if your body is using all the energy you provide just to keep your body mass alive then you won’t have much for walking or thinking, or to keep your heart pumping.

Learn how to lose your fat and give your body more energy.

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

Many Years With Excess Body Fat Increases Your Risk For Cancer

 “We’ve known for a long time that excess weight is an important factor in cancer risk,” The cancer society says excess weight contributes to as many as 20 % of all cancer deaths.

“This study is interesting because it suggests that the number of years you spend being overweight also matters,” and that should provide further incentive to avoid excess weight gain in the first place. Because more women have a higher risk for getting cancer than men, this research study was done on women, but the principles of being overweight adding to your risk of cancer pertain to both men and women.

Currently, about 7 out of 10 adults in the United States are overweight, and more than one-third are obese, according to background notes with the study.

I’m sure that you’ve heard on the news about the increase in cancer in people over 50. Over the past 30 years, Americans have almost doubled the amount of people on cancer drugs. So why the big increase in cancer patients? It’s because of our diet. The population keeps gaining weight, we are becoming a fatter society and its body fat that stores the chemicals that we consume in our foods. Your body can’t process the chemicals in our food so the body stores those chemicals in fat cells and over time you will develop cancer. Depending on your physical condition, our bodies will fight off some of these cancer cells, but the older we get the less ability our body has to fight the cancer in our cells and finally the cancer cells will win the battle.

So why doesn’t everyone get cancer? Some of us won’t live long enough, we’ll die of something else first. Other people never ate enough of the chemicals in food and their bodies were strong enough to fight off any cancer cells they had. Keeping your body strong, staying thin, eating healthy foods is all part of helping your body fight disease and illness. Excess fat will slow down body functions and keep your body from defending itself against diseases.

Over the next dozen years, just over 6,300 women developed a form of cancer that has been linked to obesity, such as breast, ovarian, endometrial, colon, kidney, liver or pancreatic cancer.

It turned out that the risk of developing any of those cancers rose in tandem with the number of years a woman had been overweight.

Cancers like colon, kidney, liver, prostate or pancreatic cancer are prevalent in men that are overweight.

On average, the study found, the odds rose by 10 percent for every 10 years a woman had been obese. Similarly, they climbed by 7 percent for every decade she’d been overweight. The statistics for men are similar.

When the researchers took a closer look, four cancers were clearly connected to the duration of a woman’s excess weight: breast, endometrial, colon and kidney. But the findings do not prove excess weight causes these cancers.

The findings suggest that when it comes to curbing cancer risk, “obesity and overweight prevention is essential, at any age.”

Why is excess weight related to cancer risk? According to researchers, it’s difficult to isolate effects of obesity, per se, since it often goes hand-in-hand with lifestyle habits and medical conditions that have also been linked to cancer.

Those include smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet and type 2 diabetes.

Try to maintain a healthy weight throughout adulthood. Having a healthy body weight is always beneficial — not only to prevent cancer but also other diseases associated with [excess weight].

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

The Importance Of Your Diet

 Many people just don’t understand that losing weight will become automatic once you get on the right diet.  Healthy foods, not the lack of food or skipping meals but just eating the right foods will give you new-found energy that you forgot you had. The energy to get moving again and that extra activity will burn more calories and the body fat will begin to melt away.

This won’t happen overnight, but changing your diet and eating healthy foods will have an almost immediate impact on the amount of energy you have every day. It only takes a couple of weeks at the most and you’ll feel the difference. The healthy diet has many more benefits like you won’t be getting sick anymore, you won’t have to take vitamin supplements. You’ll sleep better and get more sleep will help you lose weight. You can also save a lot of money by cutting out vitamin pills and other supplements and spend your money on fresh foods.

You can do a search “powerhouse fruit and vegetables” to get a complete list and more info but in short:

Watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens are among the most nutrient-dense “powerhouse” vegetables, packing a huge dose of vitamins and minerals into every calorie. That’s important if you’re trying to lose weight because you still have to count calories.

At the same time, don’t expect to receive huge amounts of nutrition from raspberries, tangerines, garlic or onions, the findings suggest.

National nutrition guidelines emphasize consumption of powerhouse fruits and vegetables, which are strongly associated with reduced risk of chronic disease like cancer.

But until now, the study author noted, nutritional value of veggies hasn’t been ranked in a way that would show which best qualify as nutrient-dense powerhouse foods.

Higher-ranking foods in this study provide more nutrients per calories. The scores may help focus consumers on their daily energy needs, and how best to get the most nutrients from their foods. The rankings provide clarity on the nutrient quality of the different foods and may aid in the selection of more nutrient-dense items within the powerhouse group.

The study calculated the nutrition contained in 47 fruits and veggies, finding that all but six met the criteria as a powerhouse food.

Cruciferae and dark green leafy vegetables dominate the top 10. They are, in order, watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens, followed by spinach, chicory, leaf lettuce, parsley, romaine lettuce and collard greens.

All the top vegetables contain high levels of B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, riboflavin, niacin and folate — nutrients that help protect people against cancer and heart disease, the researcher noted.

These have a lot of the B-vitamins and a lot of fiber in the leaves.  If you think about plants, that’s where they store their nutrients. Those green leafy vegetables have a lot of minerals and vitamins and fiber in those leaves, and very few calories. These make the perfect food for dieters.

People who chop off the leafy part of vegetables such as celery, carrots or beets are actually cutting away some very good nutrients.

The six fruits and vegetables that didn’t make the list as powerhouse foods are raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onions and blueberries. While all contain vitamins and minerals, they are not densely packed with important nutrients, the study said.

The full list is published June 5 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease or you can find the list online.

Folks will get good nutrition from the powerhouse veggies whether they eat them raw or cook them, as long as they don’t boil them.

Fresh, you have 100 percent of the vitamins and minerals. When you cook it, you might lose a small percentage, but it’s not significant.

Boiling, however, can drain veggies of B-vitamins, vitamin C and other nutrients. Cooks who choose to boil spinach or collard greens should save the nutrient-rich water, either including a little with each serving or re-using the water in sauces or soups.

Vegetables are carbs and grains are carbs and carbs should be the biggest part of your diet with protein only about 20 or 25 percent of your diet. Grains need to be whole grain like some breads or oatmeal but the other carbs should come from veggies. Carbs can be the biggest problem with your diet. The wrong carbs will turn to fat almost instantly. Think about what you're eating and how long it takes you to lose fat.

Don't confuse losing weight with losing fat. Losing fat is all that counts. When you lose weight, 80 percent is muscle weight and 20 percent is fat. For every 10 pounds you lose only 2 pounds is body fat. You might say, so what it's still weight. Just losing weight will not take inches off your waist. Losing more fat than muscle will make you thinner and give you more energy. 

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

The Dangers Of Artificial Sweetener

Artificial sweeteners are very popular with those people on a diet, but do you really know what you are adding to your coffee or tea?

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener, as a possible carcinogen. The decision was based on limited evidence and didn’t change the recommended acceptable daily intake levels for aspartame.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in many low-calorie products like Diet Coke and sugar-free Jell-O. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decades ago, but some people continue to question the safety of this sugar substitute.1

The WHO’s cancer research group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), uses four categories to classify carcinogens or cancer-causing agents.

Aspartame is now listed in Group 2B alongside things like gasoline, lead, and whole-leaf aloe vera extract. Group 1 consists of harmful substances with “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” including tobacco smoke and ultraviolet radiation.2

To be placed in Group 2B, the research group must find “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals,” or “strong evidence that the agent exhibits key characteristics of carcinogens (regardless of whether from exposed humans or human cells or from experimental systems).” “For current consumers of diet drinks, this news isn’t cause for major alarm. Aspartame has been classed in IARC’s Category 2B, which means there’s limited evidence that it might cause cancer, not that it does or is likely to,” Alexandra Jones, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Food Policy and Law at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia, said in a statement.

How Dangerous Is Aspartame?

Some people have turned to aspartame and other artificial sweeteners as a way to reduce their sugar intake. Consuming too many added sugars has been linked to an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

But with the news that aspartame is a “possible carcinogen,” some people may wonder if the swap from sugar to aspartame is worth it. Carcinogens are cancer-causing. This doesn't mean you will get cancer but you are increasing your risk. Many people get cancer from carcinogens but not everyone, so if you are at high risk for cancer cutting out carcinogens is a way to lower your risk.

“No one ingredient or food increases cancer risk. It’s the amounts and patterns of food we consume over time, along with other genetic and lifestyle factors, that influence health risk,” Debbie Petitpain, MS, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian in Charleston, South Carolina, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Verywell in an email.

Aspartame is one of six sweeteners currently approved by the FDA as “safe for the general population under certain conditions of use.” The FDA determined that it’s safe for most people to consume up to 50 mg/kg body weight of aspartame every day.

In tandem with IARC’s possibly carcinogenic classification, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) reaffirmed the acceptable daily intake of aspartame is 40 milligrams/kilogram of body weight.

“To exceed this, a 150-pound person, who would have a daily limit of 3,400 milligrams, would have to consume 19 cans of diet soda or more than 85 individual packets of aspartame every day over the course of their lifetime,” Petitpain said.

The available research on aspartame and cancer has offered some mixed results. A controversial animal study from 2006 linked aspartame to cancer in rats,4 but an observational study published the same year didn’t find a link between aspartame and an increased risk of brain cancers in humans.

However, an observational study in 2022 suggested that aspartame may increase overall cancer risk in humans, especially obesity-related cancers and breast cancer.

The FDA maintains that aspartame is safe for most people and the website states that the agency has “reviewed more than 100 studies designed to identify possible toxic effects, including studies that assess effects on the reproductive and nervous systems, carcinogenicity, and metabolism.”1

“When a substance or product may have cancer-causing potential, it is essential to weigh the benefits and health risks. The most important piece is for individuals to have transparency on the safety information to make an informed decision,” Sudarsan Kollimuttathuillam, MD, a medical oncologist and hematologist at City of Hope in California, told Verywell in an email.

Try Another Sweetener If You Are Worried About Aspartame, it's always important to read the labels.

If you’re concerned about aspartame, look at nutrition labels to determine if your favorite products contain this artificial sweetener. It is also known by the brand names NutraSweet and Equal.

You don’t have to give up all sweets if you decide to avoid aspartame. Petitpain recommends using some of the other FDA-approved non-nutritive sweeteners like saccharin or sucralose or one of the sweeteners, such as stevia, monk fruit, or allulose, that the FDA has said are “Generally Recognized as Safe.”

She also said that some people can decide to consume foods and drinks with low amounts of added sugar.

“Examples include beverages such as water, unsweetened tea or coffee, 100% juices or milk, and snacks including fruits, nuts, unsweetened yogurt and other whole foods,” she said.

For now, the only strong health advisory against aspartame is for people with phenylketonuria (PKU) who can’t break down the protein phenylalanine which is found in aspartame.

“If you have concerns about aspartame or its potential impact on your health, it is always advisable to consult with a healthcare professional who can provide personalized advice based on your specific circumstances,” Kollimuttathuillam said.

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

Another Article I found

 An article by the Mayo Clinic Staff

When it comes to weight loss, there's no shortage of diet plans. Check any magazine rack, and you're bound to see the latest and greatest diet plans. But how do you know if a diet plan fits your needs and lifestyle?

Ask yourself these questions about any diet plan you're considering:

Does it include various foods from the major food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat dairy products, lean protein sources, and nuts?

Does it include foods you like and that you would enjoy eating for a lifetime — not just for several weeks or months?

Can you easily find these foods in your local grocery store?

Will you be able to eat your favorite foods or, better yet, all foods (even if some are in small quantities)?

Does it fit your lifestyle and budget?

Does it include proper amounts of nutrients and calories to help you lose weight safely and effectively?

Is regular physical activity part of the plan?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, keep looking. There are better diet plans out there for you.

The best plan is the one you can stick with for life.

I think we all have that idea that all you have to do is cut back on the snacks, cut back on the alcohol, and the weight will come off. That's what you did last time and you lost 5 pounds. This will be easy peasy. 

That's probably not going to work. It's easy to lose a few pounds but doesn't always come back? The truth is that the weight will always come back because you're still eating the same foods and drinking the same drinks that put on the weight. 

The only way to lose weight permanently is to lose body fat. Forget the scale. When you drop 2 pants, then you're losing fat. At that point, keep it up. Your waist, at your navel, should be half your height. For example, If you're 5'10", that's 70 inches, your waist should measure 35 inches.

You want to measure your waist early in the morning before eating or drinking. You should be standing straight with your muscles relaxed.

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

How Much Belly Fat Is Risky?

 

Whether it's on the latest magazine cover, during a doctor's appointment, or even just in the department store change room, belly fat seems to be getting a lot of our attention these days. But how do you know whether your personal stockpile of abdominal fat is a longevity threat, or just a cosmetic nuisance?

As we get older, fat tends to migrate towards the mid-section of our body, whether we're male or female.

Many women notice a "menopot", or thickening of their waistline after menopause. This can be true even if they traditionally had a flat tummy, and haven't gained any weight. Yes, as you get older your waistline can grow and you don't have to gain weight. Other parts of your body are naturally shrinking. Your muscle mass can shrink over 50, especially if you don't workout.

You can avoid that menopot by changing your diet and doing some exercise. It's inactivity that will change your body's shape.

Read more: Help! My body shape is changing!
While subcutaneous fat sits just beneath your skin and is not considered dangerous, visceral fat that surrounds your internal organs is hormonally-active tissue associated with insulin resistance and a host of other serious problems. Visceral fat can lead to diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a collection of risk factors that increase your chances of cardiovascular disease, even death.

Read more: How obesity hurts your liver
One way to assess your belly fat risk is to measure your waist-to-hip ratio; a ratio of 0.8 or less in women, or 1.0 or less in men is considered within a healthy range. Other methods of measuring visceral fat include computerized tomography which uses multiple x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound technology.

Get the answer lying down: In her book Fit to Live, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland's medical school Pamela Peeke, MD, has this advice on a low-tech way to determine which kind of six-pack you're packing:

Lie down on your back
Feel for your pelvic bones with your index fingers
Contract your abdominal muscle as if you were lifting something very heavy
Feel your abdomen from side to side
Peeke writes that if your abdominal muscle stays quite flat as you're bearing down, then the fat you feel on your abdomen is subcutaneous, or "outer" fat. If, on the other hand, your abdominal muscle sticks out (as though you're slightly pregnant), it means you have dangerous visceral fat within your abdominal cavity.

Try it! While crunches and other ab exercises may tone your belly, they won't remove the fat inside it. The good news is that getting rid of any body fat will help diminish the amount of visceral fat within your abdomen. Eating enough fruits and vegetables, fiber, whole grains and fish — all part of a Mediterranean-style anti-aging diet — as well as regular daily exercise will help you lose pounds and dangerous belly fat.

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

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

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.