Getting Rid of Belly Fat!

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
July 19, 2009

Getting Rid of Excess Belly Fat

Sit-ups will not get rid of belly fat because you cannot
get rid of fat in a certain area just by exercising the muscles
underneath that fat. You will lose the most belly fat by exercising
intensely in any sport (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,
November 2008). Three groups of overweight, middle-aged women who
suffered from Metabolic Syndrome completed 16-week programs of:
(1) continuing their existing levels of activity with no change;
(2) low-intensity exercise training five times a week at a level
that did not cause breathing hard; and (3) high-intensity
exercise training with three days a week hard enough to become
short of breath and two days a week at an intensity not becoming
short of breath. Cat scan X rays and air displacement
plethysmography studies showed that the high intensity exercisers
lost belly fat, both underneath their skin and inside their bellies.
The low-intensity exercisers lost no measurable belly fat.
Storing extra fat in the belly causes people to become
diabetic. Full fat cells produce hormones that prevent the body
from responding to insulin so that blood sugar rises too high,
causing sugar to stick to cells and damaging cells anywhere in the
body. Those who store fat primarily in the belly are the ones most
likely to suffer high rises in blood sugar. If you store fat
primarily in your belly, have high blood levels of triglycerides
and sugar, and low levels of the good HDL cholesterol, you meet the
definition of Metabolic Syndrome and the odds are that you are
diabetic, or will become diabetic soon. You are likely to suffer
a premature death unless you make major lifestyle changes: lose
weight, exercise, avoid refined carbohydrates (except during
exercise), and make sure you get enough vitamin D.
Exercise can cause heart attacks in people with blocked
arteries, and intense exercise increases the risk. Almost
80 percent of diabetics die of heart attacks. Check with
your doctor before starting a new exercise program or increasing
the intensity of your existing program.