Why You May Never Lose Belly Fat

It is extremely unhealthy to have excess belly fat. Visceral fat, which is a medical term for unhealthy belly fat, is a risk factor for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Visceral fat has nothing good to offer your body than surrounding the vital organs in your abdomen and body including your liver. If you have a normal weight but with excess belly fat, you also have a higher risk of developing health problems.

Apart from inactivity and sugar, the following are reasons why you may never lose belly fat. Knowing them will make you re-strategize your approach to weight loss and reduce your time at the gym as well.

1. Stress

When it comes to survival, the stress hormone cortisol is very important.

However, if this stress hormone is secreted in excess, it can lead to weight gain, especially in the belly.

Too much stress results in overeating and the cortisol stores excess calories as fat in the abdominal region instead of storing it all over the body.

2. Genetics

Although there is still need for more researches to back this up, but so far, it has been confirmed that gene plays major role in how you store excess calories in your body as belly fat. Your tendency to have too much abdominal fat is influenced by genetics, to some extent.

One particular gene is the one that has a great influence on how you lose or gain weight. A gene also regulates your stress hormone cortisol and another gene that codes for the leptin receptor. The leptin receptor helps to regulate calorie intake.

Scientists discovered 3 new genes linked to abdominal obesity and 2 of those were only found in women.

3. Inadequate Fiber Intake

Fiber is very important in your diet, especially when it comes to weight management and good health. Some types of fiber can help you feel full, stabilize hunger hormones and reduce calorie absorption from food.

It was discovered from a study of 1,114 participants that soluble fiber intake was linked to reduce belly fat accumulation.

Having your diets low in fiber and high in refined carbs have the terrible effect on your appetite and weight control, especially by adding to your abdominal fat.

A study linked whole grains with high-fiber content to reduced abdominal fat, while refined grains had the opposite effect on abdominal fat.

4. Inadequate Sleep

The importance of adequate sleep to our health is what I believe to be a common knowledge by now, but it still doesn’t stop some of us to manage to have short sleep.

There are several studies that have linked inadequate sleep to weight gain and excess abdominal fat. if you have sleep disorder, its a n issue you seriously have to attend to. It leads to weight gain, especially sleep apnea.

5. Intake of Wrong Dietary Fat

According to Bruce Krahn, the author of Lean Belly breakthrough program, this is one of the common mistakes people seeking to lose belly far often make. There are good fat and there are bad ones. When it comes to the unhealthiest fats in the world is the Trans fats. They consist of unsaturated fats and hydrogen and they are used to extend the shelf lives of crackers, baking mixes, muffins and other packaged foods.

Transfats have been linked to inflammation, which results in heart disease, insulin resistance and other diseases. According to several animal studies, diets with trans fats can cause excess abdominal fat.

6. Inadequate Protein Intake

Protein is very essential for preventing weight gain and for building muscles. Food with adequate protein makes you feel satisfies and full, which will help reduce calorie intake spontaneously.

Long term low-protein diet can make you to gain belly fat. A lot of studies also support the fact that consuming high amount of protein reduces your tendency to gain excess belly fat.

7. Menopause

It is extremely common for women to gain belly fat during menopause. During a girl’s puberty stage, the hormone estrogen causes the body to start storing fat on the thighs and hips.

This is done in preparation for pregnancy. This fat has not harm to the body. After menopause, her estrogen levels dramatically drop and this causes fat to be stored in abdomen, instead of the thighs and hips.

Take Home Message

There are lots of factors that contribute to your visceral fat. Although there are some that are beyond control but there are more that you can do something about. Start by making healthier life choices.

This applies to what you should eat and the ones you should stay away from. Also, it depends on whether you are doing the right exercises and how you manage stress to control your cortisol levels.

Paying attention to all these will certainly help you get rid of belly fat fast. And, don’t forget to stay away from sugar, including fruits juice.