Shape Magazine
Facts about Fat
Good news: The type of fat that does the most damage is also the easiest to lose. Thigh fat may hang on to you for dear life, but with the right lifestyle changes, fat packed deep in your abdomen will quickly melt away. "Studies show that people who lose 10 percent of their body weight may reduce their visceral fat by 30 percent," Wood says.
What works better, diet or exercise? In the short term, cutting calories is easier. For a 145-pound woman, it takes a full hour and 10 minutes of walking at 4 mph to burn the number of calories -- 390 -- in one Starbucks oatmeal raisin cookie. It's a lot easier to just forgo the cookie -- in theory, anyway. "In reality, exercise works better long term because people are more willing to adopt exercise behaviors than dietary changes," Gaesser says.
The best approach is to combine a moderate increase in exercise with small, manageable dietary changes, like switching from mayo to mustard on your sandwich (savings: almost 100 calories per tablespoon) or eating an apple instead of drinking a glass of apple juice (savings: 45 calories). If you choose foods that are low in fat and high in fiber instead of processed and fast foods, you will likely consume fewer calories and stay satisfied longer.
Since stress has been linked to abdominal fat, it's also important to keep your anxiety level down by exercising regularly, getting enough sleep and taking time out to relax, whether in a yoga class or a 10-minute daily meditation session at home.
Don't be in a hurry to lose fat. Dropping about 2 pounds a week might sound realistic, but in truth, that's an aggressive goal, requiring about a 1,000-calorie deficit every day. "That's just not sustainable," says Ribisl, who would prefer to see that people aim for 1/2 pound a week. Over a year, that's still an impressive 26 pounds. The best way to reduce your body fat over time, experts say, is to make a healthy lifestyle your goal -- not to focus on the number of pounds you're losing. Once you adopt healthy habits and stick with them consistently, you can rest assured that eventually the weight will come off.
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