THE BIG QUESTION
CAN YOU REALLY TARGET BELLY FAT FOR WEIGHT LOSS?
BELLY FAT
There’s a lot of advice about exactly what you should do to shift that spare tyre around your waist. Does any of it add up?
by DR REBECCA DUMBELL
We’ve all seen the adverts. ‘This one, simple trick will blitz the blubber around your belly’;
‘Turn your body into a furnace and burn off your spare tyre with this diet hack’; ‘Get Adonis abs by doing this five-minute workout’. But exactly how sceptical of their claims should we be? What does science actually tell us about getting rid of belly fat?
Well, the first thing to say is that not all fat is bad. To maintain good health, it’s critical that our bodies can store excess energy, and they do this using fat. Fat tissue is also structurally important
“Not all fat is bad. To maintain good health, it’s critical that our bodies can store excess energy, and they do this using fat” in our bodies – it helps keep us warm through insulation and it cushions the palms of our hands, the soles of our feet and, yes, our bottoms. The fat just under our skin, known as subcutaneous fat and often found on the hips and buttocks, can be healthy. Ultimately, without any fat storage in our bodies, we would be unwell and very uncomfortable.