There are lots of good reasons to try and lose your belly fat. Sure, you’d love to have a svelte waist and look terrific in belted trousers, but having too much fat around your middle actually is harmful to your health.
A wide waistline raises risk of diabetes, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, hardening of the arteries, and certain cancers, such as colon cancer. Also, scientists recently discovered that women with excess belly fat have an increased risk of osteoporosis.
While it can be difficult to trim your tummy, it’s not impossible. Consider some ways of narrowing your apple shape.
1. Measure your risk
Even people of normal weight can be at risk if they have too much belly fat. Among the dangerous things belly fat does, it boosts the production of “bad” LDL cholesterol, which forms plaque in arteries, then becomes inflamed and swells, causing blockages.
To determine whether you are at risk, wrap a tape measure around the thinnest part of your waist, just above your hip bone. Keep the tape snug and level, but not tight. Exhale and don’t suck in your belly; measure your waist. Experts say that if you’re a man with a waist measuring more than 40 inches around or a woman with a measurement of 35 inches, you are at risk.
