Visceral fat can go largely unnoticed because it's not visible to the naked eye. Short of talking a physician into performing an MRI on your abdomen, you can check your waistline. A trim waistline is a good indicator that you don't have a large build up of visceral fat.

With age, your metabolic rate slows and it becomes easier to store extra weight in the form of body fat, even if our over all body fat remains the same it's common for fat to distribute or increase around the truck area especially in women after menopause.

Small change to our lifestyle can make a big difference to our health.

Research has shown the importance of increasing cardiovascular exercise and reducing saturated fats in our diet for the reduction of visceral fat.


Different foods contain different fats:

* Saturated fats - sources include fatty cuts of meat, full fat milk, cheese, butter, cream, most commercially baked products such as biscuits and pastries, most deep-fried fast foods, coconut and palm oil.

* Monounsaturated fats - sources include margarine spreads such as canola or olive oil based choices, oils such as olive, canola and peanut oils, avocado, and nuts such as peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews and almonds.

* Polyunsaturated fats - sources include fish, seafood, polyunsaturated margarines, vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, corn or soy oils, nuts such as walnuts and brazil nuts, and seeds.

A diet which contains more polyunsaturated fats and to a slightly lesser extent and more monounsaturated fats, then saturated fats will help reduce visceral fat.

Exercise

Research suggests that exercise is a particularly effective way to lose visceral fat compared to just changing eating habits alone, although a healthy, balanced diet is always important.

Exercising in your target heart rate

The body does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat in the 'fat burning zone' or at lower intensities. But, at higher intensities, you burn a greater number of overall calories which is what you should be concerned about when trying to lose weight.

In order to figure out which zone you're in, you first need to figure out what your own target heart rate is. You can do this by using the Karvonen Formula.

Below is an example of the Karvonen formula for a 23 year old person with a resting heart rate of 65 beats per minute (to get your resting heart rate, take your pulse for one full minute):

220 - 23 (age) = 197
197 - 65 (resting heart rate) = 132
132 * by 65% (low end of heart rate) and 85% (high end) = 85.8 or 112.2
85.8 + 65 (resting heart rate) = 150 and 112.2 + 65 (resting heart rate) = 177

The target heart rate zone for this person would be 150 to 177.

Cardiovascular exercise is down to the individual, we all like (and dislike for that matter) different exercises, so it's important to find an exercise you enjoy. Make it your goal to complete a minimum of 30 minutes exercise with in your target heart rate range at least 3 times a week to help maintain a healthily lifestyle.



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