BELLY FAT – that flabby, wobbly, loose, soft, jelly-like “stuff” that gathers around your abdomen; is there anything that can make a person feel less attractive? Belly fat is the bane of not just overweight people, but people who are mostly slender too.
If you’ve ever wondered how and why belly fat forms, and more importantly, how to get rid of belly fat once and for all, you’re going to be very glad you took the time to read this report! We’re going to share some important reasons why belly fat may be making your life hell, and some helpful tips for melting it away and reclaiming your flat, sexy belly again.
The Dangers of Belly Fat
Before we get to all that, it’s important to point out that this guide is not just for vanity’s sake. Belly fat may be unattractive, but it can also be dangerous. Medical experts agree that people who are carrying excess fat in the midsection are much more prone to diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and even Alzheimer’s Disease.
Maybe right now your driving motivation is to get rid of the “muffin top” effect when you wear those cute hip-hugger jeans, but later in life you’ll be glad that you took the time to learn more about belly fat and halt it in its tracks before it can cause more harm to your health.
(By the way, it’s not just women who struggle with belly fat; men do too! In fact, some experts say that men are even more likely to accumulate belly fat because of hormonal differences. Women are more likely to store fat in their butt, hips and thighs – but we all know that they can easily store it in their stomachs too.)
Fat is Fat
One important thing to understand about belly fat is that it’s just FAT. It’s not a different type of fat than the fat on your rear or thighs. It’s all just fat. However, there are two different kinds of fat that get stored in your abdomen:
Subcutaneous fat – This is the stuff you can see just under the surface of your skin, giving your tummy that jiggly, loose appearance.
Visceral fat – This is the more dangerous kind of fat because it forms deep inside your body, like packing material in between and around your internal organs. This is also the kind of fat that puts your life at risk from serious disease.
If you aren’t really overweight but still have a little “paunch” around the middle, chances are you probably don’t have a large accumulation of visceral fat inside. However, if you are significantly overweight or obese, you likely have accumulations of visceral fat and it’s important to take steps to release it now, before it can do serious damage to your health.
Causes of Belly Fat
How does belly fat start forming, anyway? Is it as simple as eating too many calories? Eating the wrong foods? Are there specific habits that can cause belly fat to accumulate? Yes, yes, yes, and more. Below are some of the most common causes of belly fat, along with lifestyle tips and solutions for getting rid of it:
Belly Fat Cause #1 – Stress
When you get stressed, your body is immediately flooded with stress hormones, including a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol and other stress hormones actually have a beneficial purpose – namely to prepare your body for “fight or flight” in dangerous situations. Unfortunately, the downside to cortisol is that it also causes fat to be stored around your midsection. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if you only got stressed occasionally, but like many people today, you may experience frequent, prolonged periods of chronic stress, and that can do a number on your body over time.
Lifestyle Change – Soothe Your Stress
As impossible as it may seem, it’s vital to get your stress levels under control if you want to minimize that “spare tire” around your waist, and all of the health risks that come along with it. Not to mention that prolonged stress by itself is harmful to your health, even beyond the issue of stomach fat. Excess stress increases your likelihood of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.
But how can you minimize stress when you can’t eliminate the causes of stress? For example, perhaps you have a high-pressure job, or your children demand much of your time and resources which leaves you feeling drained, or any other number of common life stressors – you can’t very well ditch everyone and everything in your life and go meditate on a mountain top to feel serene, right?
You don’t have to! Seriously, managing stress is not about radically changing your life circumstances so you can feel calm – but rather learning how to handle stress in healthier ways. Certainly, if there are situations that are making you feel pressured and unhappy and you are able to release them, go for it.
Unhealthy or dysfunctional relationships, jobs that drain the life out of you, and excessive obligations that you don’t really have to do can all be removed from your life, even if it takes a little time to make a full transition.
In the meantime, take steps to manage your stress in more productive ways each day. This goal can take a number of different forms, but here are a few that may help you:
Releasing Agitation
Most chronic stress begins as an underlying feeling of aggravation, frustration, or annoyance. It’s subtle at first, but if you don’t diffuse it early on, it will keep snowballing until your heart is racing, your hands are clammy, and your shoulders feel like they are wrapped up around your ears.
Start paying closer attention to how you feel throughout the day. When you notice that you are starting to feel a little tense or agitated, take a few minutes to slow down, take some deep, slow breaths, and let go of anything that is bothering you. This is admittedly difficult if you aren’t used to doing it – but over time, with practice, you can dramatically lower your stress level by simply nipping it in the bud and diffusing it before it can grow to astronomical proportions.
Burning Off Tension
Believe it or not, regular exercise is a great stress-buster, and at the same time you will be helping to burn off that belly fat! Cardio exercise helps boost your metabolism and burn fat, including those pesky deposits around your middle. The next time you feel stressed, lace up your walking shoes and get moving – or join a kickboxing class so you can burn off that tension (and vent frustration by punching and kicking it out of your system) in healthy ways.
Get Quiet
Much of modern-day stress is caused by over-stimulation. If you’re like most people, you’ve got constant noise and distraction happening all around you, and constant demands on your time and attention. Setting all of that aside for several minutes each day can do WONDERS for your peace of mind – and body.
Even if you have to wait until late at night or early in the morning to have some quiet time to yourself, do it. Just turn off everything that can potentially distract you, like phones, televisions, radios, computers – and just sit and breathe. Let your thoughts flow naturally, but don’t latch onto any specific thoughts . . . just let them drift by as you focus on relaxing your body and allowing your mind to rest for a few minutes. Ideally you should do this for 10-15 minutes a day, but even if you can only escape for a few minutes here and there, it’s better than nothing.
Belly Fat Cause #2 – Processed, Refined Foods
Do you eat a lot of prepared foods? That means foods that come in a package or carton. Unless you are shopping at an organic health food market, most of the processed, packaged foods you can buy today are high in calories and loaded with sugar, starch, fat and sodium.
Not only are these foods nutrient-deficient, they often act like a Molotov cocktail in your system, raising your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. They promote water retention as well as gas and bloating. The result is a distended abdomen; and yes, over time, the accumulation of actual fat deposits on your belly and elsewhere.
Lifestyle Change – Ditch the Unnatural Foods
All of those unnatural, chemical-laden foods do not do your body any favors. Eating substantial amounts of them is just asking for trouble, both with belly fat and health problems.
“Fast food” also falls into this category, by the way. You know; the burger joints, the fried chicken places, the taco stands – meals from these places are often loaded with fat, calories, sodium, sugar, MSG and worse. Not to mention that one large fast food meal probably contains your entire day’s worth of calories and not nearly enough nutrients.
Getting rid of belly fat requires you to change not only how much you eat, but WHAT you eat. One of the smartest moves you can make is to get rid of all processed, refined, “fast” foods. Avoid anything that comes already prepared, and instead prepare your own “fast foods”!
Believe it or not, eating healthy does not have to require a large amount of time or money. Fruit and vegetables are “fast foods” because most of them can be eaten fresh and raw.
Buy organic if possible, because it makes little sense to eliminate harmful processed foods and then load up on pesticides from produce. (If organic foods aren’t within your reach regionally or financially, then at least scrub your vegetables and fruit well before eating to remove as much pesticide residue as possible.)
Try to make the basis of your diet 75% or more all-natural, whole foods, just like they come from nature. That means lean protein from poultry, fish, beef, pork, and beans and legumes; plenty of fruit and vegetables in their natural forms; whole grains rather than refined white bread, pasta and rice; and healthy fats like olive oil and avocadoes. If you eat a lot of dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt, you may want to opt for versions that are lower in saturated fat, or even soy versions if your digestive system doesn’t tolerate dairy products well.
Eating processed foods occasionally shouldn’t cause a problem for most people, but you definitely don’t want to make them the main part of your daily diet.
You may find like many other people have that just improving the quality of the food you eat by reducing chemicals, sodium, sugar and fat has a dramatic, slimming effect on your stomach as well as the rest of your body.
Belly Fat Cause #3 – Slow Metabolism
Another cause of belly fat is a sluggish metabolism. When your metabolism isn’t functioning efficiently, you are more likely to store fat not just on your stomach but all over your body – but the stomach area is where it is likely to show up first.
Sometimes there are underlying medical conditions that can affect your metabolism, like hypothyroidism (under-active thyroid gland). An endocrinologist can run tests to determine if that is a consideration for you. For the majority of people, this will not be the case.
Instead, when people say they have a “slow metabolism,” the truth is that they are simply eating too much (or too many of the wrong foods) and moving too little. It can often SEEM like your metabolism is really slow, but most of the time just making some key lifestyle changes can improve it by leaps and bounds.
Lifestyle Change – Fire Up the Fat-Burning Furnace
Fitness and nutrition experts agree that burning excess fat and preventing more from being stored requires a fine balance in your lifestyle habits. Below are the four key things that most experts recommend should be done:
Drink More Water
In order to burn fat efficiently your organs need to be functioning properly, and for that to happen your body needs to be fully hydrated. Unfortunately, the majority of people today do not drink nearly enough water so their bodily functions are somewhat impaired, making all of the organs and muscles work much harder than they should have to.
When you drink enough water, you help flush out toxins and free your organs and muscles to function as they were meant to – including the old “fat-burning furnace” (in which your liver is a key player). The minimum recommended water intake daily is 64 ounces (that’s eight 8 oz. glasses), but some people should be drinking even more than that, like people who are overweight or those who exercise a lot.
Eat Enough, But Not Too Much
Eating too little can slow down your metabolism because your body feels threatened that it may be facing a famine, so it starts storing fat that can be burned for sustenance later if there is no food available. Eating too much is just as bad because whatever your body can’t burn for fuel will be stored as excess fat on your body.
So how much SHOULD you eat? Unfortunately, there is no single answer to that question; it is different for everyone. Calorie-wise, a common answer is to multiply your current weight by 10 and that is the number of calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, multiply that by 10 and you get 2,000 calories per day to maintain your current weight. If you need to lose weight, you would need to consume less than that amount of calories – many experts suggest reducing your caloric intake by 500 calories a day. So you would aim for 1,500 calories daily, in this example.
This is not a perfect formula, however, because other factors come into play, like how much you exercise, how much you already weigh, and the types of foods you eat.
Eat the Right Foods
As mentioned already, you definitely want to avoid gulping down a lot of processed, prepared foods and instead lean more toward whole, natural foods. Many people report that when they start eating healthier, “cleaner” foods, they find that they can get away with eating much more than they used to, simply because their bodies are processing the foods so much easier and experiencing fewer unpleasant side effects from the chemicals, sugar, fat, and sodium.
Exercise Regularly
Regular exercise is important for two reasons. First, it helps you burn more calories so you can eat more and keep your metabolism functioning properly; and secondly because the more lean muscle you build, the faster your metabolism is going to be naturally.
Your workout routine should include both cardiovascular exercise (like brisk walking, running, dancing, swimming, or cycling) and strength training exercises (like weight-lifting, Pilates and yoga). Be sure to check with your doctor before you start an exercise routine, and be sure to start slowly if you don’t already work out regularly.
Abdominal exercises can help flatten your stomach, but a very common mistake people make is to assume that they don’t have to change any of their other lifestyle habits and they can just do a bunch of crunches or sit-ups and create the six-pack abs effect. Wrong! If you start working out your abdomen muscles without making any other changes, you are likely to notice something distressing – your stomach actually looks bigger! That’s because you haven’t burned off any of the fat under the skin, but you are now building up the muscles beneath it, which only makes your stomach seem to stick out more. Instead, remember that you need to burn off that fat AND tone the muscles beneath.
Belly Fat Cause #4 – Excessive Alcohol Consumption
Another major cause of belly fat is drinking too much alcohol. You’ve probably heard of having a “beer gut” or “beer belly,” right? That’s not a figure of speech; it’s an unfortunate side effect of too much partying. Alcohol has a lot of calories. If you have just one beer (or drink) occasionally, and you budget the calories into your daily caloric intake, it’s probably not going to cause a lot of problems. But if you routinely go out with the guys (or girls) and down three, four (or ten) drinks in an evening, your body can’t possibly burn off all of those calories. Even worse, alcohol lowers inhibitions so you will be much more likely to eat a lot, especially in social settings where food and alcohol are plentiful.
Lifestyle Change – All Things in Moderation
If you are in the habit of drinking several times a week, or even daily, do what you can to cut down as much as possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t go out with your friends and have a good time, but you can easily drink seltzer water with lime instead of beer. Or have just one drink and then switch to water. Before attending any social functions, be sure to eat something light and nutritious like a salad or some lean protein so you aren’t hungry. You’ll be less tempted to overindulge on sweet or fatty foods.
Belly Fat Cause #5 – Hormonal Fluctuations
Menopause is well-known for contributing to the formation of belly fat – but simply getting older makes belly fat more common too. As you get older you naturally become less active, your metabolism starts slowing down, and weight gain is more likely, especially around the middle.
Lifestyle Change – Aging Energetically
Rather than just accepting that excess weight is a part of growing older, do what you can to stay as active as possible and adjust your dietary habits like we’ve already covered. There are plenty of extremely active, fit and healthy people that are middle-aged and beyond! You can be one too.
Hormone replacement therapy may be something you wish to speak to your doctor about because some studies have shown that it can help you avoid the formation of excess belly fat – but there are also other risk factors that should be seriously considered, like an increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer, blood clots and stroke.
For most menopausal and post-menopausal women, lifestyle and dietary changes will be enough to help them shed pounds and get fit, thereby greatly reducing or eliminating excess belly fat.
Belly Fat Cause #6 – Food Allergies and Sensitivities
Some people have sensitivities and allergies to certain foods that can cause gastrointestinal symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. While this is not a cause of belly fat per se, it CAN cause a distended abdomen and make your stomach look fatter than it really is.
Lifestyle Change – Listen to Your Stomach
This is one of the easier lifestyle changes to make. Simply start paying attention to how your stomach and intestines feel when you eat certain foods, and avoid the ones that cause symptoms. Some people will notice that they get very gassy and bloated after ingesting dairy products, while others will be sensitive to grains and seeds, and still others to processed foods or fried foods.
When you’ve got some clear ideas on which foods may be upsetting your digestive system, do some more research on them because you may find some helpful dietary tips that can help you beyond just eliminating those foods from your diet.
Belly Fat Cause #7 – Genetics
Take a moment to think about your immediate family members. Do your parents, siblings and grandparents have excess fat around their middles? If most or many of them do, it’s possible that you have a genetic disposition to belly fat.
People with this disposition are often referred to as having an “apple” shape to their bodies, meaning they tend to accumulate fat around the middle but not so much elsewhere. Compare this to a person with a “pear” shape, accumulating more fat in the buttocks and thighs rather than the stomach.
However, even if you have a genetic disposition, it doesn’t mean you are doomed to have an accumulation of belly fat forever. Lifestyle changes like we’ve been covering here can go a LONG way in overcoming any genetic tendencies.
Lifestyle Change – Get Rid of Your Genes (or Your Relatives)
Yes, that’s a joke. 
Of course it’s impossible to get rid of your genetic tendencies (and we don’t recommend getting rid of your relatives, either). But it’s possible to work around genetic influences and come out the victor over your genes.
Since you can’t change your genetic makeup, decide right now that you’re going to set aside excuses and do whatever you can to change your diet and exercise habits and take control of your own health and well-being. Just because many of your relatives have belly fat does not mean you have to keep yours.
Keep in mind that it’s not just genes that are passed down through the generations, but HABITS are too. You may have learned some unhealthy habits from your relatives, but you have the power to change those, which will make your results different from theirs.
Belly Fat Cause #8 – Eating Close to Bedtime
Do you ingest a large portion of your daily calories a few hours before bedtime? When your body is at rest, all of your metabolic processes slow down so you don’t burn as many calories as you would during the day while you are actively moving around. When you eat large portions of food shortly before you go to bed, many of those calories are going to be stored as fat.
Unfortunately, some people eat very few calories all day long, then gulp down a large dinner – and then munch on snacks all evening before they go to bed! Throughout the day they may have ingested 500 to 700 calories, and then 2,000 to 3,000 calories right before they go to bed. Bad idea!
Lifestyle Change – Eat Bigger Meals Earlier in the Day
If you routinely eat more in the 5 or 6 hours before you go to bed than you do all day, see what you can do to flip that around. Start eating a bigger breakfast and lunch, then having a very light dinner and a small snack perhaps 3 hours before bed, and that’s it for the day.
Better yet, some fitness experts claim that eating small snack-size meals 5 to 6 times a day is even more beneficial on your metabolism because you keep your body well-fueled all day without overloading it with too many calories.
If you really can’t stand eating first thing in the morning, try compromising by having a protein shake or a smoothie rather than eating something solid. Snack on raw veggies, whole grain crackers and yogurt throughout the day, even if you don’t want to eat bigger meals. At least you will still be giving your body some much-needed fuel and preventing excessive hunger at dinnertime.
Belly Fat Cause #9 – Overeating
We just covered excessive eating in the later part of the day, but eating a lot more than your body needs in one sitting is a bad idea too, no matter what time of the day you do it.
Did you know that the average person’s stomach can hold about a quart? That’s about 4 cups worth of food and liquid. The problem is that it’s possible to stretch the stomach to accommodate more than that – and boy do some of us push the limits! Over time, you can stretch your stomach so much that normal portion sizes are no longer enough to satisfy you.
The problem with this is, of course, that eating huge portions usually deliver huge amounts of calories unless you happen to be eating huge portions of raw vegetables, but that’s probably not the case for most people with belly fat.
Lifestyle Change – Eat Like a Bird
If you were to poll a bunch of people with naturally flat stomachs, you’d probably find that most of them are light eaters. Even if they can put away a fair amount of calories in a day, they probably eat only small amounts of food each time they eat.
For example, they’ll have just half a sandwich instead of a whole one (or two). They’ll have “just a sliver” of cake instead of a big chunk. They “peck” at food just like birds peck at feed on the ground, eating little bits here and there but never overeating a lot of food at one time.
Perhaps you do know of some “naturally thin” people who eat a lot, but more often than not these will be people with a very fast metabolism or they are very active so they continuously burn off many of the calories they ingest. These people would be the exceptions to the rule, and if you are carrying excess weight around your middle you are probably not one of them.
Regardless of the size of your body or whether you have belly fat or not, eating smaller portions of food can only benefit you! It helps you avoid taxing your digestive system any more than necessary, which leaves more energy and vitality for the rest of your body.
You can even take this method to the next level by deciding to eat ONLY when you are physically hungry, and then only eating as much as it takes to satisfy your hunger, but no more than that.
If you already do this you may be wondering, “doesn’t everyone eat this way”?
No. Many people develop the habit of eating for every other reason except for physical hunger, and then keep right on eating way past the point of satiety. If this describes you, start today by listening to your body’s hunger signals, and then stop eating as soon as you no longer feel hungry (but you aren’t yet really “full” either).
You may be pleasantly surprised by how little food it takes to satisfy you, and the increase in energy you get from not taxing your system with too much food – not to mention the almost immediate shrinking of your belly and other overweight areas!
Conclusion: It’s Not Just the Belly
The thing to keep in mind about belly fat is that it’s not JUST about the belly. There is no evil belly fat monster making your stomach jiggle. Where there is belly fat, there will likely be fat in other areas. Even if it isn’t obvious to begin with, it’s the start of an unfolding process that will likely spread beyond the belly for most folks. To halt this process in its tracks, you need to address your entire lifestyle habits, not just focus on getting rid of the fat on your belly. In fact, you can’t just burn fat from your belly and nowhere else (unless you truly don’t have extra fat elsewhere except your belly – that is the case for some people but it’s not as common).
The good news is that once you start improving your dietary habits, exercising regularly, and managing your stress better, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how quickly you can see results in the form of a flatter, sexier stomach. This is true no matter what age you are, or the challenges you have faced in slimming your tummy before.
Most importantly, hopefully this guide has empowered you with the knowledge that you don’t have to take drastic measures to get rid of belly fat. A few common-sense, moderate changes in your eating and exercise habits should be enough to see results. Yes, a few sacrifices will probably be necessary too – but when you think of your gorgeous abs, waiting to make their debut, you’ll probably agree that the sacrifices are worth it.