The common objective of many people is to lose their belly or abdominal fat.
While maintaining healthy body weight and body fat percentage is crucial for good health,
different types of belly fat can have different effects on your well-being.
The issue goes beyond appearances. Numerous alarming health conditions, such as breast
cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, have been related to abdominal obesity.
Why do so many of us wear our excess weight around our bellies?
Your metabolism, which decides how many calories are too much, your hormones, which direct
fat where it feels comfortable, and your genes all play a role in the solution.
You might feel less stressed about your weight and more in control anytime you try to shed fat
by understanding how these elements interact to turn food into belly fat.
It’s not what you might think when it comes to Metabolism and
Weight Gain
A straightforward problem—eating more calories than your body burns during the day—causes
weight gain. Before we continue, it’s crucial to understand that the quantity of activity you get
has only a minimal effect on the number of calories your body burns each day.
Your basal metabolic rate is mostly responsible for your calorie burn (or BMR). Your body needs
this energy to function. All during the day, your heart, brain, and every cell in your body are
powered by the calories you expend.
If you are working hard when lifting weights, your muscles will require more calories to expand.
And because the muscular tissue needs to be repaired, the body knows where to send those
calories.
Why Fat Goes to Your Belly
Where our fat goes is not up to us to decide. Our genes, which we have no control over, have
some role in determining whether we carry more of our weight in our lower body or around our
belly.
However, you can have some degree of control over your hormones, which are the other
important factor in fat storage. Insulin and cortisol are two hormones that are particularly
important in the development of abdominal fat.
Insulin functions much like a bouncer. Therefore, when you eat anything like carbohydrates or
sugar that rises, blood sugar rises, and insulin is going to shovel that sugar out of your
bloodstream and deposits it into your fat cells. It does this to bring blood sugar levels back down
to a safe level.
Your stress reaction is controlled by the other hormone cortisol. Its job is to fuel your large
muscles with enough glucose to get your body ready for fight or flight.
How to Limit Fat Gain?
Energy balance, or getting in the same number of calories as you burn off each day, is the first
step in preventing the accumulation of belly fat.
You can get started using these three strategies.
Choose Quality Calories
Eating a diet high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean meats will not only help you feel
more satisfied, but they will also be less likely to transform into belly padding as your body
processes them, making this chore much less intimidating.
Control Your Cortisol
Particularly when drank in significant quantities over a short period, alcohol can promote an
increase in cortisol.
One of the simplest and most accessible strategies to reduce tension and trigger a relaxation
response is by breathing. A few slow, deep breaths can change your “fight or flight” response
into “rest and digest.”
Hit the Sack
Another factor that increases the production of cortisol and other hormones can result in fat
storage is poor or insufficient sleep.
Just a few days of insufficient sleep, defined as four hours or less, can modify your hormones in
such a way that it makes it much harder to release fat from fat cells and increases the likelihood
that fat storage will occur.
