You've decided on losing belly fat but have yet to find a proper motivation. Take this: according to medical experts, lugging around that spare tire is a higher health risk than, say, fat depositing in your hips or thighs because belly fat is associated with such diseases as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, breast and colorectal cancer, gallbladder problems and metabolic conditions. In addition, a recent also showed that belly fat is likely to cause inflammation and hardening of the arteries.



Here, take some tips on how you can start losing belly fat!

? Tale of the tape. Looks can deceive, so if you want to be sure whether or not it's time to trim your midsection girth, the best way to do this is to measure your waist circumference. Lie down in a relaxed manner, making sure that you are not holding your breath or your stomach in. Then, using a soft tape measure, take the circumference of your natural waistline, or that area right below your belly button and above your pelvis. The safe zone for men is 40 inches and 35 inches for women. If you measured more than this, it's time to move on to the next step.

? Get up and sweat it out. It's a no-brainer that losing belly fat first requires that you leave your sedentary life in favor of physical activity that's much more intense than getting up to change the channel when you can't find the remote. According to fitness experts, a thirty-minute date with the treadmill twice or thrice a week won't cut it. Instead, a full-body exercise regime with cardio and resistance training will heighten your metabolic and hormonal responses, and give you better results, faster.

? Stick to the right exercise-food ratio. You get belly fat from what you eat. And you lose it by exercising, among other things. Naturally, if you eat more fat that you can burn, you can expect your belly fat deposits to pile up. This is the reason why most people complain about not getting any results from days or weeks of exercising. They fail to see that the amount of food intake more than makes up for the calories burned.

? Watch what you eat. Stay away from those fad diets that say ?new,? ?revolutionary,? or ?groundbreaking.? All you need to know is this: a diet that rich in complex carbohydrates, monounsaturated fats, and calories in general, and are low in polyunsaturated fats and simple carbohydrates are good for you. All these requirements are often found in fruits and vegetables.

? Finally, consistency is the name of the game. Losing belly fat requires wanting to lose it, and committing yourself to doing whatever it takes to achieve that six-pack abs. In the beginning, it may be difficult to keep a close watch on your diet or get up and exercise. But in anything you do, the secret is always to stick to it until you get what you set out for. Exercise and eat a healthy diet regularly until they become second skin.