Do you like to wear stylish and fashionable clothes? For a woman over 40, often there is a problem with those: They are tight-fitting, revealing excess fat. Especially belly fat doesn't look good in form-fitting clothes. Recently, a woman over 40 told me: "I need to lose belly fat now! Summer is coming- I want to fit into my old clothes again!"

Of course, a woman over 40 wants to look good in wintertime too, but at the beach, at a pool party or just by excluding thick winter clothing from your wardrobe belly fat gets particularly unsightly. To lose belly fat is often hard for a woman over 40- and it's much more than just a visual problem. Belly fat is a serious health hazard.

Belly fat can accumulate both on and beneath your abdominal muscles. And that's the main difference between belly fat that's just not adding to your beauty, and belly fat that's actually dangerous.

1. If the fat deposit is more or less directly under your skin and on top of the abdominal muscles, it's not nice to look at but to a certain degree not really dangerous. This type of body fat originates mostly from eating too many calories- even if those come from healthy foods. You can overeat on healthy foods too!
2. If the fat accumulates inside your belly, below the abdominal muscles, you're risking your health. This fat surrounds your inner organs and is highly active in your metabolism. It emits fatty acids in your blood, making the blood thicker. Additionally it releases hormones which cause a lot of dangerous processes in your body, making it hard to lose weight permanently for a woman over 40. This type of particularly dangerous fat comes often from eating too much sugar, fat and lack of exercise.

If you built up an accumulation of soft fat on your belly, it's probably fat on top of your abdominal muscles. If you can feel your belly muscles, then the fat is inside your belly (below the abdominal muscles).

You probably have heard of the BMI (body mass index). There is another method to assess your health risk when it comes to body fat: Measure the circumference of your belly. Do the measuring standing and get your biggest circumference. For an initial assessment, check your health risk in the table below:

• Men:  37 inches or more: Low
• Men:  40 inches or more:  Medium
• Men:  42 inches or more: High

For a woman the health risk is even higher:

• Women: 32 inches or more: Low
• Women: 35 inches or more: Medium
• Women: 37 inches or more: High

Hormone changes over 40 make it harder and harder for a woman over 40 to lose ugly and dangerous belly fat. If you are a woman over 40, you've probably already tried several diets and you've unsuccessfully attempted to lose your belly fat for some years. You might consider a customized program specifically designed for you to lose your belly fat permanently.