Having some body fat is healthy, but there’s good reason to want to lose extra weight around your waist.About 90 percent of body fat is just below the skin in most people, estimates Harvard Medical School. This is known as subcutaneous fat.
The other 10 percent is called visceral fat. It sits underneath the abdominal wall and in spaces surrounding organs. That’s the fat associated with various health problems, like:
- type 2 diabetes
- heart disease
- cancer
If you’re goal is to lose belly fat, there’s no easy or quick method. Crash diets and supplements won’t do the trick. And targeting a single area of the body for fat reduction isn’t likely to work.
Your best bet is to work on losing overall body fat through diet and exercise. Once you start losing weight, there’s a good chance some will come from your belly.
How long that takes is different for everybody. Read on to learn the average time it takes to lose excess belly fat and how you can get started.
How long does it take to burn fat?
You have to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. This is because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound of fat.
To lose 1 pound a week, you have to eliminate 500 calories from your diet every day. At that pace, you could lose about 4 pounds in a month.
Increasing physical activity will help you burn more calories. Exercise also builds muscle mass. Muscle is heavier than fat, so even though you’re looking and feeling leaner, it might not show on the scale.
