I think my belly fat problem started when I was in my early 20’s, specifically when I gave birth to my first baby. I was not really that bothered with it for the first six months after giving birth as I told myself that the bulges would go away given some time. Obviously, it was a misconception; the bulges didn’t go away.

And so the battle against my own belly fat ensued and I must say, after so many years, I didn’t really win. It was more of meeting halfway with my belly fat.

I tried everything: crunches, dieting, firming creams, I even considered liposuction at one time but I got weak-kneed when I saw a liposuction procedure demonstrated on TV. There was one time I almost win and quite frankly, I could feel my toned abs underneath a sliver of abdominal fat but as I got pregnant with the second baby, well, I said goodbye to my “almost” sexy abs too. This was the time when I got too exercise-crazy that I almost lived in the gym being there twice a day for 3 hours a piece, six days a week. So yeah, there’s still hope.

Now that I am old and my metabolism is working against me and quite siding with the belly fat, please don’t judge me if I give you the dagger eyes when you point out that my belly is quite bulging because I am certainly aware of that. However, I am also aware that some of my colleagues have already given up the battle entirely. As for them, I only have these words to say: heart attack, stroke, diabetes. I hope you get the message.

What you should know is that there are actually two kinds of belly fat. One is the fat you can pinch and shows unsightly. The other is the one that chose to live underneath it and happily hugs your internal organs. From the sound of it, be more afraid of the latter because you simply don’t know what they are doing in there and what damage they are afflicting right now.

These organ huggers aka visceral fats are not in any way passive. They actually have mechanisms of their own. They secrete hormones and lipids that are not good for the body. The way they live inside of us affects our health tremendously and causes health problems in the long run. It can even cause cancer as some studies show.

The good news is, visceral fats go first when you slim down. They are the first things to go away as the pinchy ones are the stubborn ones. In other words, you become healthy first before you become sexy.