Maintaining a toned midsection does more than just enhance your appearance—it can also boost your lifespan. A larger waistline is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. Shedding excess weight, particularly around the belly, can improve blood vessel function and lead to better sleep quality.
While it’s impossible to target belly fat directly through diet, losing weight overall will help trim your waistline and, more importantly, reduce harmful visceral fat. This type of fat, hidden deep within the abdominal cavity, is not visible but significantly raises health risks.
Here’s how to slim down where it counts the most.
Focus on cutting carbs, not fats.
In a study by Johns Hopkins researchers, participants who followed a low-carb diet lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet, even though both diets had the same calorie count. After six months, those on the low-carb plan had lost an average of 28.9 pounds compared to 18.7 pounds for the low-fat group. An added advantage of the low-carb approach was its higher quality of weight loss. While all weight loss typically involves a reduction in both fat and lean tissue (muscle), those on the low-carb diet lost proportionally more fat and less muscle, leading to a healthier body composition overall.
