When you have too much subcutaneous fat, your body becomes less efficient at burning calories, and your metabolism hits a sluggish snooze button. It's like trying to run a marathon in quicksand - you'll be huffing and puffing, but not getting very far.

That extra layer of pudge around your waistline can do more than just make it harder to squeeze into your favorite jeans. Excessive subcutaneous fat has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease.

So, if you're looking for a reason to cut down on subcutaneous fat, you've found it! Now that you've discovered the health risks associated with excessive subcutaneous fat, let's move on to assessing your current fat levels.

It's time to face the music and the mirror and find out where you stand. When it comes to measuring subcutaneous fat, one of the most common methods is by looking at your body fat percentage. Your body fat percentage is the amount of fat you have in relation to your overall body weight.

It's like the dashboard on your car - it gives you a quick snapshot of your health risks. So, pull out that tape measure, buckle up, and get ready to face the truth. Now that you're armed with the knowledge of your body fat percentage, it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty.

There are several tools and techniques available to measure your subcutaneous fat, ranging from fancy machines to DIY methods. Whether you opt for a high-tech gadget or a good old-fashioned pinch test, the choice is yours. Just be prepared for a few encounters with measuring tapes and calipers along the way.

Alright, folks, we've come to the part you've all been waiting for - the dietary changes that will help you kiss excess subcutaneous fat goodbye.

But before you start throwing out all your favorite snacks, let's take a moment to recognize that a balanced diet is the key to success. Remember, abs are made in the kitchen, not just at the gym. When it comes to losing subcutaneous fat, it's not about depriving yourself or swearing off your favorite foods forever we're not monsters, after all.

Instead, focus on creating a balanced diet that includes a variety of nutrient-dense foods. Think colorful fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources, whole grains, and healthy fats.

It's all about finding the right balance, like a gymnast on a balance beam minus the sparkly leotard. Now, we love dessert as much as anyone. But if you want to lose excess body fat, there are a few foods that should take a break from your plate.

Avoid processed foods loaded with added sugars and unhealthy fats, as well as sugary drinks. Fast-food meals should also be avoided since they can sabotage your fat-loss goals. But fear not, brave warrior on the road to fat loss, for there are plenty of foods that will become your trusty companions on this journey.

Load up on nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables that will keep your body humming like a well-oiled machine. Incorporate lean protein sources, like chicken, turkey, and fish, which will help keep you full and satisfied.

And don't forget to sprinkle in some healthy fats, such as avocados, nuts, and seeds, because fat can be your friend in moderation, of course! We've talked about diet, now let's get physical! While eating a balanced diet is essential for losing subcutaneous fat, exercise is the cherry on top - the sprinkles to your fat-busting sundae, if you will.

So, lace up those sneakers and let's get moving! When it comes to torching subcutaneous fat, cardiovascular exercise is your secret weapon.

When it comes to body fat, location counts, and each year brings new evidence that the fat lying deep within the abdomen is more perilous than the fat you can pinch with your fingers. If you poke your belly, the fat that feels soft is subcutaneous fat.

It's found in the spaces surrounding the liver, intestines, and other organs. It's also stored in the omentum, an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with fat. Although visceral fat makes up only a small proportion of body fat, it's a key player in a variety of health problems.

As women go through their middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight tends to increase — more than it does in men — and fat storage begins favoring the upper body over the hips and thighs.

Even if you don't actually gain weight, your waistline can grow by inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal wall. Visceral fat lies in the spaces between the abdominal organs and in an apron of tissue called the omentum. Subcutaneous fat is located between the skin and the outer abdominal wall.

Body fat, or adipose tissue, was once regarded as little more than a storage depot for fat blobs waiting passively to be used for energy. But research has shown that fat cells — particularly visceral fat cells — are biologically active. One of the most important developments [since the mids] is the realization that the fat cell is an endocrine organ, secreting hormones and other molecules that have far-reaching effects on other tissues.

Before researchers recognized that fat acts as an endocrine gland, they thought that the main risk of visceral fat was influencing the production of cholesterol by releasing free fatty acids into the bloodstream and liver.

We now know that there's far more to the story. Researchers have identified a host of chemicals that link visceral fat to a surprisingly wide variety of diseases. Subcutaneous fat produces a higher proportion of beneficial molecules, and visceral fat a higher proportion of molecules with potentially deleterious health effects.

Visceral fat makes more of the proteins called cytokines, which can trigger low-level inflammation, a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic conditions. It also produces a precursor to angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise. A tape measure is your best home option for keeping tabs on visceral fat.

Measure your waistline at the level of the navel — not at the narrowest part of the torso — and always measure in the same place. According to official guidelines, the bottom of the tape measure should be level with the top of the right hip bone, or ilium — see the illustration — at the point where the ilium intersects a line dropped vertically from the center of the armpit.

Don't suck in your gut or pull the tape tight enough to compress the area. In women, a waist circumference of 35 inches or larger is generally considered a sign of excess visceral fat, but that may not apply if your overall body size is large. Rather than focus on a single reading or absolute cut-off, keep an eye on whether your waist is growing are your pants getting snug at the waist?

That should give you a good idea of whether you're gaining unhealthy visceral fat. Visceral fat can be measured in a variety of ways.

CT scans and full-body MRIs are the most precise, but they are expensive and rarely available, so investigators often use estimates based on waist circumference or waist size in proportion to height see "Gut check". To ensure that they're not just measuring overall obesity, researchers also check whether a person's waist circumference is higher than average for her or his body mass index BMI.

Cardiovascular disease. Several studies have documented this effect. For example, a large study of European women ages 45 to 79 concluded that those with the biggest waists and those with the largest waists in relation to their hip size had more than double the risk of developing heart disease.

The risk was still nearly double even after adjustment for several other risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, and BMI.

Higher visceral-fat volume also has a deleterious impact on several other heart disease risk factors. It's associated with higher blood pressure, blood sugar levels and triglyceride levels, and lower levels of HDL good cholesterol.

Taken together, these changes, known as metabolic syndrome, create a serious risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente found that people in their early 40s with the highest levels of abdominal fat, compared with those who had the least abdominal fat at that age, were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia including Alzheimer's disease by their mids to early 80s.

Dementia was not associated with increased thigh size. The risks were highest for women who were both large-waisted and overweight or obese. The investigators believe that belly fat raises the risk of asthma more than other poundage because it has inflammatory effects throughout the body, including in the airways.

Breast cancer. A combined analysis of several studies found that premenopausal women with abdominal obesity the largest waist size in proportion to their height were at greater risk for breast cancer. Large waists were also linked to breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women, but that effect was not significant once BMI was taken into account.

Recognizing the interaction between visceral and subcutaneous fat is key to shedding subcutaneous fat. Fitness strategies that burn fat in general, as well as those that counteract the negative effects of visceral fat, can maximize success.

To lose weight, people need to reach a negative energy balance. This means consuming fewer calories than their body expends each day. When losing weight, people do not need to cut out any foods or food groups — however, focusing on including certain foods can make weight loss easier.

Protein, for example, helps people feel fuller longer. Eating more protein can make it easier to stick to a diet and reduce cravings for high-fat and high-sugar foods. Some research suggests that excess carbohydrate consumption can cause abdominal fat, both visceral and subcutaneous.

While people do not need to avoid carbs, it is a good idea to consume them as part of a balanced meal containing carbs protein, and fat. Adding exercise to a daily routine can make it easier to achieve a negative energy balance, which can aid weight loss.

Movement is also good for health and can make people feel better, physically stronger, and more energized. Mental health matters for people trying to lose weight. Chronic stress causes the body to continually release a hormone called cortisol.

In small, short-lived bursts, cortisol is harmless. But prolonged exposure to cortisol can undermine weight loss.

This means that managing stress may help in the effort to shed subcutaneous fat. Cortisol is particularly harmful to weight loss, and having high levels of it can make it harder to lose weight. People experiencing bouts of stress should try to also avoid stress-eating, particularly eating a lot of sweets and carbohydrates.

A diet and exercise strategy that focuses solely on losing subcutaneous fat can be unhealthy and ineffective. Although fears about the health effects of obesity have led many people to look at what they see in the mirror, the real culprit in the obesity epidemic may be invisible.

An older study found that people with a lot of visceral fat, or the kind not visible from the outside, were more likely to die when they had less subcutaneous fat. This means that people who have less visible fat are, at least in some cases, at a greater risk of death.

Other studies have reached similar conclusions. This evidence suggests that subcutaneous fat may protect the health of people who have lots of visceral fat. Dieters must often pick a side in the low-carb vs.