Whole Grains Fight Belly Fat

I have learned that eating whole grain bread & cereal is healthier than white bread, so I have been on such diets for long time. However I have also put on quite a lot of belly fat which I attributed to the following factors:

• Lack of exercise


• Poor diet habits (wrong portion size, wrong time, etc)


• Basically, caloric imbalance (Calorie Intake > Calorie Burned)


• Total lack of understanding of belly fat (visceral fat) and it's risk

When I realized my high body fat early this year, I became quite worry and started lots of reading on its risks and learned how to combat it (in theory). I believe I have put the theory in good use and good effect, albeit slowly.

In short, combating belly fat is very important if we want to lower our chance of developing heart disease, diabetes or even cancer.

I like to share these 2 useful articles, read the study carefully:

• Belly fat in men: What you need to know
  Learn why belly fat is unhealthy — and what you can do to lose the extra pounds.


• Whole Grains Fight Belly Fat
  Study Shows Whole-Grain Diet Good for the Waistline and the Heart

Understanding Body Fat, Cholesterol & Blood Pressure

This is a simple sheet of information on Body Fat, Cholesterol & Blood Pressure

Body Fat Analyzer

Body fat analyzers are becoming extremely popular. Some body fat analyzers can indeed help you in your quest to improve your health, level of fitness, and make your fat loss & weight loss efforts more effective.

Most people are finally realizing that improving your health, fitness, etc. isn't just about losing a certain amount of body weight. Yes weight can be a determining factor, the more important thing to realize is how much body fat are you actually burning off?

There are various body fat analyzers on sales, although they are supposed to do the same thing - measure your body fat, but they don't always give the same result. So you really need to be more careful when shopping for one, do your own research before committing to one.

I have been going around "testing" the body fat analyzers to get my body fat readings, for free of course. That's how I managed to know that my body fat percentage started with 30% and dropped to 25% recently. But of course you need to do a lot of exercise to burn the body fat. From my own experience

• exercise at least 45 to 60min at least 5 day/week
• typically your heart rate must reach at least 65% of your max heart rate before your body will start burn fat, also need to maintain at that rate or higher for at least 20min
  
• your Max Heart Rate = 220 - your age, e.g. my MHR = 220 - 40 = 180
  
• 65% of MHR = 180 x 65% = 117

I hope this is helpful. Go search the net for more info from the experts.

• Burn more fat - secrets of exercise physiology
• Fat Burning Zone

Body Fat Percentage

Body fat measurements and the measuring tape are recognized as superior methods for measuring "weight loss". When one declares that they want to "lose weight", what they often mean is that they want to lose fat. So, now that you've had your body fat percentage measured, what does the number really mean?

First, your body fat percentage is simply the percentage of fat your body contains. If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else).

A certain amount of fat is essential to bodily functions. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body's energy storage. The following table describes body fat ranges and their associated categories:

*General Body Fat Percentage Categories

*American Council on Exercise

Classification	Women (% fat)	Men (% fat)
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	32% plus	25% plus

Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic. Remember, weight loss doesn't always mean fat loss. For example:

Let's say you're a 130# woman with 23% body fat, and you goal is to "lose 20 pounds":

Initial body fat: 130# x 0.23 fat = 30 # body fat

Lean body mass: 130# total - 30# fat = 100# lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)

Goal: 130# - 20# = 110 pounds

As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy. At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100# of lean body mass (bones, organs, etc.), but would only be carrying 10#, or only 9% body fat. From the chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage.

A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18%. In this case:

130# x 0.18 = 23 # body fat

100# lean body mass + 23 # = 123# goal weight

So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds. Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.

So before you decide that you need to "lose weight", remember to consider that "weight" consists of both lean body mass and body fat. Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.