Look in the mirror, you may notice a slight bulge around your waist, or perhaps your pants have become a little tight. Even if your overall body weight is normal, you may still be carrying excess belly fat that can increase your risk of serious health problems.
In addition to accumulating belly fat, older men tend to lose muscle mass, a change known as sarcopenia, with most men losing about 30 percent of their muscle mass over the course of their lives, starting at the age of 30.
“When you lose muscle mass, the calorie- and fat-burning machine works less efficiently, and it becomes easier to store calories as fat,” says Dr. Carolyn Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Then she adds: “Men do not store fat in their legs and chest like women do. “Instead, it goes straight to the abdomen.”
Types of fats
> “Subcutaneous” fat: People usually assume that the “bad” fat around the waist is the kind that accumulates just under the skin (subcutaneous fat), which you can pinch and see. “However, this fat, by itself, seems to cause few health problems,” Dr. Apovian says.
> Visceral fat: The most dangerous type of fat is the type that you cannot see, which is visceral fat, which is stored inside the abdominal cavity and surrounds vital organs, including the pancreas, liver, and intestines. Visceral fat produces more proteins called cytokines, which can trigger low-level inflammation. It also produces a precursor to angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise.
While visceral fat may only account for about 10 percent of a person’s total body fat, research has shown that even this amount can increase several risk factors for heart disease, such as blood pressure levels, blood sugar levels, and total cholesterol, in addition to increasing the risk of fatty liver disease.
Measurement of visceral fat
> Visceral fat imaging: If you can’t see visceral fat, how do you know if you have too much of it? “The medical field is still grappling with the best approach to achieve this,” Dr. Apovian says. The most accurate method is an MRI or CT scan, but they can be expensive (and US health insurance does not cover the cost of the test if it is ordered only to evaluate visceral fat). Subcutaneous fat can provide an important clue, as excess amounts usually indicate higher amounts of visceral fat.
> Body Mass Index: In the past, the body mass index (BMI) was the standard way to estimate excess body fat, but it is not a reliable measure, especially as a measure of visceral fat. This index does not take into account racial differences, nor does it take into account excess weight resulting from muscle and bone mass (which is why many athletes with good fitness are considered overweight or obese according to BMI standards).
> Waist circumference: Measuring your waist circumference is a more convenient way to estimate visceral fat. Place the bottom edge of the measuring tape at the top of your right hip bone, then wrap the tape around your waist at navel level (not the narrowest part of your torso). Do not suck your abdomen inward or pull the tape so tightly that it compresses the area.
“In men, a waist size of 40 inches (102 cm) or more almost always indicates excess visceral fat,” says Dr. Apovian. Ideally, men who are between 5ft 6in (168cm) and 6ft 6in (198cm) should aim for a waist measurement no more than half their height. > Waist-to-hip ratio: An alternative method is the waist-to-hip ratio: divide your waist circumference by the circumference of your hips. For men, the score should be less than 1.0 (some references indicate that the ideal score for men is no more than 0.9).
Reducing fat by building muscle
It’s no surprise that the best way to reduce visceral fat is a combination of exercise and a healthy diet. However, the type of exercise is important, as is how you modify your diet.
>Resistance exercises: Dr. Apovian says: “To stimulate the burning of belly fat, you need to build muscle mass, and this means increasing the practice of resistance exercises.” Resistance training (also known as strength training) consists of upper and lower body exercises using free weights (such as dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, weight machines, resistance bands, or your own body weight).
Resistance exercises increase muscle mass by working on muscle hypertrophy, a process in which microscopic damage to muscle fibers stimulates their repair and growth. This process stimulates the body to increase the number of myofibrils, which are long tubular structures within muscle fibers, making the fibers thicker and stronger.
Increased muscle tissue can convert white fat cells into brown fat cells, which produce energy to generate heat and maintain body temperature. “This browning of white fat cells can restart the fat-burning machine and lead to shrinking visceral fat and less belly fat,” says Dr. Apovian.
>Aerobic exercises
Aerobic exercise also plays a role in improving muscle metabolism. Dr. Apovian recommends 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three or more days each week, in addition to regular resistance training. Then, she says, “Combining aerobic exercise with resistance training can further utilize stored visceral fat.” It doesn’t matter what type of aerobic exercise, jogging, swimming, cycling, and brisk walking are all ideal exercises. “The key is to get your heart pumping harder during the majority of your exercise time,” Dr. Apovian says.
Get enough protein
To build muscle, your body also needs a sufficient amount of protein, which it breaks down into amino acids that make up muscle.
The recommended dietary amount of protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, or about 0.36 grams per pound. This means you multiply your weight by 0.36 to find your daily protein requirement. For a 180-pound man, that equates to approximately 65 grams of protein per day.
However, research published in the June 2023 issue of The Journals of Gerontology: Series A suggests that older adults looking to increase muscle mass may benefit from consuming up to twice this amount (roughly 82 to 130 grams for a 180-pound individual).
Protein should make up 40 percent of your daily calories. An easy way to track this amount is to have each meal and snack contain about 30 grams of protein. Fish, poultry, legumes, and yogurt are excellent sources of protein. You can also add protein powders to smoothies, oatmeal, or a glass of water or milk.
Calories and weight loss
Older men also need to pay attention to their calories, because consuming too many of them contributes to the accumulation of visceral fat. A 2023 review of 40 trials found that people who followed calorie-restricted diets lost more visceral fat than groups who did not follow those diets. According to a study published online June 3, 2025 in the journal Nature Metabolism, consuming fewer calories can convert white fat cells into energy-producing brown cells.
However, Dr. Apovian advises not to rely solely on reducing calories to reduce belly fat. “About 25 percent of any weight loss is also a loss of muscle mass, which may affect the performance of the calorie- and fat-burning machine,” she says. Then she adds: “You should manage your calorie intake – moderately active men, aged 50 and over, need approximately 2,200 to 2,400 calories per day – but for best results, you should prioritize increasing muscle mass.”
