Do You Want Advice On How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat ?
Listen to respected Lifestyle Medical Practitioner, Dr Len van Ingen reveal some of the hidden dangers of excess abdominal fat and what you can do about it.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, Author – The Truth about Six Pack Abs, sums it up well by saying that the ONLY solution to consistently lose your belly fat and keep it off for good is to combine a sound nutritious diet full of unprocessed natural foods with a properly designed strategic exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response within your body. Both your food intake as well as your training program are important if you are to get this right.
Go to Mike’s Truth about Six Pack Abs site today and discover the exact system that Mike is using to help thousands of his clients from all over the world get leaner and fitter than they’ve ever been before. This system will help you to lose that stubborn belly fat that has plagued you for years, so you can finally get that sexy six pack that you’ve always wanted. Here’s the site:
Read a transcript of the interview with Dr Len van Ingen……….
Dr Len, we hear lots about the risks to our health from being overweight. Can you tell us why excess abdominal fat in particular is dangerous?
Besides excess abdominal fat not looking very good on you and it carries special health risks, especially when you have an apple shaped ‘beer belly’. A beer belly is mostly a sign of having a lot of fat inside the abdominal area. Doctors call this fat visceral fat because it is inside rather than outside the abdominal wall. It also feels kind of hard when you touch your stomach. The other fat is subcutaneous fat, which is just under the skin providing more padding on your stomach than you probably want!
Earlier on, doctors thought that fat tissue was just a storage place for the extra fat ‘energy’ – like having food in the pantry, ready for use when you need it. However, we now know that this fatty tissue, especially the visceral fat inside the stomach or the abdomen, is not just like food in a pantry, just sitting there waiting to be used – no it is a very ‘active’ tissue producing hormones and inflammatory substances which can cause damage to the inside of the blood vessels. This damage can cause blockages in, for instance, the blood vessels around the heart or the ones going to the brain. So people having too much fat tissue, being overweight or obese, run the risk of heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and type two diabetes, and even some forms of cancer can be caused by carrying too much fat.
So Dr Len, what is the best way of getting rid of abdominal fat, and – most importantly – keeping it off?
In the first place, anyone starting on what I call a new lifestyle, needs to make a conscious decision to make a change for the better. You must really want to get rid of the extra fat, beer belly or weight problem. You must do this for the long term, not just for a week, not just for a month. Once it begins to work and your belt needs to be tightened and your clothes start falling off you, you certainly won’t want to go back to where you were before!
Ok, we now know that two things together are the most important to have this happen – to move more and eat better. A change in eating works – moving and exercising more works better – but eating better together with exercising more works far better. The funny thing is that by eating a more nutritious diet, restricting empty calories – especially sweet easy carbohydrates like sodas – and eating fresh produce like real fruit and real vegetables, you often feel fuller and more satisfied, have more energy and feel less tired. You even feel like being more active!
So, in a nutshell, eating fresh food is best, stay away from manufactured food that comes in wrappers and cartons. Start on an exercise programme slowly, little by little, and remember – walking is already a very good form of exercise. Take the stairs rather than the lift for instance. Park the car further away and walk the extra distance. Simple things!
There are so many different diets out there and it becomes very confusing. This is particularly so in relation to fat in the diet. Dr Len, what is the best advice you can offer about fat in your diet?
Fat in your diet needs to be as natural as possible. I do not believe in low fat milk, low fat yoghurt, low fat this or low fat that. What is important is that the fat is stable, not rancid or oxidised. This goes especially for polyunsaturated fats and oils. The biggest danger is that our bodies do not know what to do with oils or fats that have gone ‘bad’ like transfats or oxidised fats.
The best fats are old fashioned butter, olive oil and even coconut oil. All of these three fats are stable in cooking and give you ‘old fashioned energy’ without causing inflammation inside your body. Fats to avoid at all costs are the unnamed vegetable oils, especially partially hydrogenated oils. These bad fats are mostly manufactured in the food industry and labelled on the package as vegetable oil but the package does not tell you which oils or fats have been used – and that is not good! Also stay away from margarine – it is not healthy for you. You need to know what you eat at all times. So choose good fats like butter, olive oil or coconut oil. Some oils, like linseed oil, should never be heated because they go ‘bad’ when heated. In the fresh form, they are a good source of Omega 3.
Move more by way of an exercise programme - not forgetting walking. Know what you eat, educate yourself about food. Decide to stick with your new lifestyle and feel good about yourself.
So Dr Len, in summary, what you are saying is that we need to make wise food choices, have a sensible exercise programme and it needs to be ongoing – it needs to be a lifestyle change.
Dr Len van Ingen’s website is: www.AskTheHealthDoctor.com
To your health and fitness!
Chris Smith
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
