Lose Belly Fat

Belly fat can also be a sign of Metabolic Syndrome, which is a group of health problems that include too much fat around the waist, elevated blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, and low "good" HDL cholesterol, all boosting your risks of disease.

If the fat feels hard instead of jiggly, you have visceral fat—the type that develops deep inside your belly around your organs—as opposed to peripheral fat. Visceral fat around your middle raises your risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure and sleep apnea. Several factors contribute to hard belly fat, see below

A man with waist measurement over 40 inches (102 cm).

A woman with waist measurement over 35 inches (88 cm).

This is the true measure of fat around the middle and the best indicator as to whether or not you are going to be vulnerable to all the health risks associated with it. 

The stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline can contribute to the build up of fat around the middle, as they promote weight gain when you experience too much stress. This is because these hormones, when triggered, release glucose into our blood stream for the fight or flight response to the stress. However, unlike our caveman days when stress came in the form of life threatening situations that meant we had to either fight or run (known as the fight or flight response), either way we needed that glucose for action. However, most stress these days comes in the form of late buses, financial problems, poor relationships, road rage etc. Our body cannot distinguish between the two types of stresses, so still reacts to modern day stress in the same way - the release of cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn releases glucose. Unless you do something physical to use up that extra energy (glucose), it has nowhere to go and will be deposited in the form of fat. 

Ongoing underlying stress can trigger higher than usual cortisol levels in the blood, which increases your appetite, making you feel constantly hungry. The body craves foods like sugars and fats ready for that fight or flight response it believes is imminent. This is the typical high sugar, high fat comfort and convenience foods that many people crave.

The onset of menopause sometimes leads to a shift in where your fat gets stored, from the thighs to the belly. Your body is extremely reluctant to let go of the fat around your middle when you are going through the menopause. This is because fat is a manufacturing plant for oestrogen, which will help protect your bones from osteoporosis. It’s a very clever system, designed to protect you, but it helps explain why mere diet and exercise alone will rarely shift that stubborn around the middle fat when combined with the effect of female hormonal changes, slower metabolism and stress with high cortisol levels.

Have you tried diet after diet, but that belly fat just refuses to go away? It’s not your willpower ... and it may not even be your diet. There’s a good chance your liver is overloaded with excess fat, toxins, chemicals, and pollutants. And when it has too much to handle, it simply stores any excess fat in your cells instead of “flushing” it out. Liver 

Cortisol, commonly known as one of your body’s stress hormones, promotes weight gain when you experience too much stress. Cortisol plays a significant role as to whether your fat ends up deep in your belly or elsewhere, such as on your thighs. Your bodily cortisol concentrations are controlled by an enzyme that’s located in fat cells, with visceral cells having more of these enzymes than subcutaneous cells. Having higher levels of these enzymes in your abdominal fat contributes to obesity because greater amounts of cortisol are being produced. Accumulating fat and higher cortisol levels in the body also are associated with a higher appetite, sugar cravings and weight gain.

Your age is a factor in developing hard belly fat because as you get older your metabolism slows, meaning the rate at which your body burns calories goes down and your risk for accumulating excess fat goes up. The average person gains 1 to 2 pounds annually in the belly region between ages 35 and 55. As you age, your muscle mass decreases, which is significant because muscle burns more calories than fat. That means you may not increase your calorie intake but, because your body does not need as much fuel to maintain itself, the excess gets stored as fat.

Lack of exercise and a poor diet both contribute to packing on visceral fat. Work up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise daily, perform strength-training exercises a couple of times a week, and modify your diet to reduce your belly fat. Replace trans fats and saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats, and choose lean proteins. Consuming the wrong type of carbohydrates raises your risk for visceral fat. Increase complex carbohydrate intake and decrease refined carbohydrates in your diet, such as those in processed foods and white breads, to reduce your risk for accumulating visceral fat.

There is a chance that the hard fat around your middle isn’t actually fat—or isn’t all fat. Your belly might protrude from built-up waste in your colon. Eating the wrong kind of carbs makes you prone to this false fat in addition to raising risk for visceral fat. Consume carbohydrates that are high in fiber to promote regularity and to eliminate this false fat. You should have one to three bowel movements daily. Eat 25 g to 30 g of fibre daily, which you can gain by consuming six servings of complex carbs such as whole grains, fruits and veggies.