Belly fat poses a number of dangerous health risks. Unfortunately, the belly is one of the most susceptible areas where fat begins to accumulate as soon as you begin to gain weight.

A study that was published by The New England Journal of Medicine found that a large waist size actually doubles your risk of dying prematurely – even if your body mass index shows that you have a normal weight.

Needless to say obesity and belly fat go hand in hand. It has been found that one-third of Americans are considered obese – a seriously condition that rises your chance of contracting various heart diseases, stroke, or even cancer.

Belly fat presents the greatest risk to your body because it is stored within the abdominal cavity and then wraps around and sometimes even invades, the important internal organs, like the heart. Belly fat secrets a harmful and inflammatory substance that can contribute to various health problems. It is often known to damage blood vessel linings.

Though belly fat is truly dangerous, hard belly fat, or beer belly as it is more popularly called, is much more dangerous. This is because; hard belly fat has high levels of C-reactive protein, which is a high risk factor for heart diseases.

In addition, it is also believed that alcohol slows down the fat metabolism by more than 30%. The empty calories of beer only go on to add to the harmful effect of belly fat.

Also, if you have more belly fat than fat on your hips, your cells mostly become resistant to insulin, which puts you at high risk for blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes and other reasons for premature death.

Excess fat in your belly means that you will also have excess fat in the liver and this interferes with the function of removing insulin from bloodstream. This excess insulin will then acts on your brain and make you eat more and may also cause heart attack.

Some of the other risks from belly fat

It has also been found that men and women who have higher percentages of fat are more likely to develop various kinds of cancers, including colon, kidney and breast cancer. The risk of dementia also increases with the increase of belly fat.

The high secretion of lung-damaging inflammatory chemicals from excess belly fat also gives rise to a number of lung problems. Diabetes and migraines are some of the other risks that arise from excess belly fat.

How much is not too much?

In women a waist size of less than 35 inches is ok, while in men, a size of 40 inches or less is ok. Each inch of increase in your waist size, puts your heath risk.

If you are on a weight loss and exercise plan, make sure it targets your belly too.

Dangerously belly fat is linked with cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The fat that you cannot see or grab poses the maximum health risks, because the ‘visceral’ fat cells produce hormones and other substances that affect your health.

Having a flat stomach is something everyone desires, but there is no ‘magic formula’ that can reduce the fat from your belly with a zap.

A proper diet and healthy living is what you need to reduce the fat around the waistline.

Here are some simple yet effective tips that might help you melt away some of that belly fat.

Manage stress: According to researches, when you are stressed the body creates several hormones which can increase the abdominal fat stores. Your body will continually pump these hormones into your bloodstream, if you have chronically high stress levels this will increase your chances of storing belly fat.

Best thing you can do when stressed is some anti- stress techniques. This will differ for most people, but it could be things like… deep-breathing, yoga, exercise or anything that is beneficial to your health that calms you down.

Regular exercise: If you religiously exercise 3-4 times per week, you can certainly achieve a flat belly. In fact, nothing reduces belly fat like regular exercise. Try speed walking, jogging, hiking outdoor and biking to burn the fat, you can even engage in playing your favorite outdoor sport. Aerobics are also good for reducing fat. If you feel refreshed after workout, it shows the exercise is helping you to lose body fat.

Proper food habit: A healthy food habit is very important in not gathering the extra fat around your waistline. However, there are not many people consuming healthy fats, especially the vital omega-3 fatty acids in their diets. These fatty acids decrease not only fat storing but increases fat-burning. It also helps in reducing the stress hormones in the body. Start eating omega-3-rich food items like fish and flax seeds or start intake of omega-3 supplements everyday.

Diet full of healthy fruits, vegetables, protein, fiber and whole grains will help you in reducing the belly fat, as these have low fats and sugar thereby promoting a lower calorie intake.

Start having small frequent meals that will help with portion control. It is generally recommended to eat four to six meals a day.

Thus, following the above tips regularly will help you to lose belly fat soon.

What most people don’t realize is the actual danger abdominal fat causes to your health! In fact, did you know that scientific researches from all over the world has proven how damaging excess abdominal fat is to your health?

Did you know that excess abdominal fat is linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer. And that the deepest layer of belly fat actually poses the most risk to your health!

Types of abdominal fat you need to know about!

The two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area are subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat – This fat lays directly on top of your abs, if you pinch your belly now, the bit you’re holding is subcutaneous fat.

Visceral fat – This fat lays deeper in the abs and wraps it self around the major organs.

Although both of these fats posse a threat to health, science has regarded excessive visceral fat even more harmful because it releases more inflammatory molecules consistently into the body.

Visceral fat plays an important role in giving that ‘beer belly’ appearance where the abdomen pouts excessively as well as feels sort of hard if pushed.

These two types of fat increase the risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, stroke, different types or cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Tips to work on, to reduce your abdominal fat…

If you really care about the future of your health, then you must get rid of that extra ugly fat around your waistline in order to live a healthy life.

Proper diet – There are many ways in which you can eliminate the danger of excess abdominal fat and one of the most important and effective ways to reduce abdominal fat is to keep a close eye on your calorie intake.

Unless you put a limit on your calorie intake, you will not be able to lose fat from around your belly. A scientific study has proved that people eating whole grains with five servings of fruits, vegetables, three servings of low-fat diary and two servings of lean fish, meat or poultry lost more belly fat than those eating the same diet only with all refined grains.

Eating whole grains bring a change in the glucose and insulin response in the body and helps reduce belly fat and visceral fat from the body.

Exercises – Regular exercises will not only keep your weight in control but also will make you feel better. You will need to exercise 3-4 times a week. You can run on a treadmill, engage in some cardiovascular exercises like swimming, jogging and Aerobics.

De-stressing - Relaxing and de-stressing also helps in reducing that extra flab from your waistline. If you are stressed, the body will create several hormones which are pumped into your bloodstream. And these hormones play a part in increasing belly fat.

However, you will find that most people, who try to lose weight in this fashion, end up gaining more than the weight they lost within weeks of completing the course.

Crash diets are not only extremely unhealthy, but also ineffective.

So, if you want to lose belly fat and also gain an overall healthy and fit body, you will have to lose weight in a proper and healthy manner. Starving yourself to lose your belly fat is not an option.

So, it is important that you find a diet plan that suits your lifestyle and at the same time suits your taste. A diet that repulses you from the very beginning is never going to work for you.

You can search online for a plan that works for you. There are a number of recipes that can help you to eat healthy. You can make your food taste better by adding various spices and herbs to them. You can also choose alternate food types that can help you to reduce the calorie intake.

More meals through the day

That’s right! Eating a number of times through the day will help you to lose more weight. You can spread your meals 5-6 times a day, instead of 3-4 meals. This should not mean that you eat more quantity of food.

You should spread the same calorie intake through the day. This will help you to stay full through the day, which in turn will help you lose weight. The key is to avoid feeling hungry.

If you can make yourself feel full, your metabolic rate will not drop, and this in turn will help your body to burn more calories. So how does eating more help you and why? It has often been seen that when you try to lose belly fat by reducing the food intake, it has just the opposite of the desired effect.

This is because, your body assumes that you are starving and kicks itself into starvation mode – that is, it slows down its metabolism and begins to store as much calorie it can. This makes losing belly and body fat a truly uphill task.

Eating healthy and eating the right amount

Though it is true that having a number of meals through the day can aid you to lose weight, you cannot afford to have fast food. You will never lose weight if you have junk food filled with empty calories.

So you need to choose the right kind of healthy food – food that is rich in minerals and fiber and low in sugar. Food of this sort will help you to feel healthy and thereby help you to avoid overeating.

Apart from eating healthy, you should also eat the right amount of food. Too much of even a healthy dish can hinder your diet, and you may not lose weight that easily.

Finally, remember that you can lose your belly fat easily, as long as you stick to your healthy diet plan. However, if you slip up once, do not lose heart. Forgive yourself and continue with the diet plan.