What Are the Causes of Belly Fat?
What are the causes of belly fat? In part the deposits of fat around your belly are due to the same thing as any other excess fat on your body, a calorie surplus. That doesn’t completely explain the thick layer of flab around your midsection, however. There are a myriad of reasons that the adipose tissue has chosen to take up residence in your abdominal region.
If you’re going to be losing your belly fat, it would be kind of nice to know how it got there in the first place. With that in mind, here are some of the main reasons many people seem to pick up the extra layer.
The main reason is obviously an excess number of calories beyond what is burned every day. That will result not only in belly fat, but fat distributed over just about every other area on your body.
There are some other reasons that some poor souls seem cursed with the deep layer of fat that recent studies are showing can be far more deadly than that lovely stuff that jiggles when you jump up and down. This deep fat, also known as visceral fat, slowly kills you, at least until it quickly does the job.
Here’s why you may have more of it than others, despite your seemingly healthy diet.
Causes of Belly Fat 2 – Genetics –
While you may not be able to blame your parents for everything (nor should you try), this is one thing that you can lay at their feet, at least in part. Genetics are the key reason behind your body shape. This variation in body shape, which scientists have generously classified as apple or pear, rather than some long-winded, Latin moniker, roughly describes your fat disposition. Those unfortunates who carry most of their fat around their midsection fall into the apple category.
If your parents, or grandparents tend to store most of their extra body fat around their bellies, chances are you will too. That doesn’t bode well, but it is something you can try to prevent or work to elimination if prevention is something that would have been better done a few years ago.
How the fat is distributed around your body is controlled in part by the regional activity of Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL). This is the enzyme that facilitates fat storage by adipocytes.
Causes of Belly Fat 3 – Hormones –
An estrogen imbalance can lead to extra fat being deposited around the belly. Even though estrogen is a female hormone, it is present in both males and females. In men, the estrogen is balanced by testosterone, the manly hormone (also present in both men and women). As men age, their testosterone levels frequently fall, which can cause a relatively higher level of estrogen. The excess estrogen can lead to the body storing greater amounts of fat. If you’re one of those that stores fat in and around your belly, that’s where it ends up. This sort of fat can be very difficult to lose, although that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Causes of Belly Fat 4 – Stress -
Stress is one of the primary health risk factors faced by people in modern society. We’ve traded in the momentary stress our ancestors faced when being chased by wild animals, for the constant bombardment we face while chasing after high sales figures, trying to get the kids to soccer, and just plain making our nut every month. This more or less constant level of stress we place upon ourselves is detrimental to our bodies.
One of the primary reasons is that stress causes increased production of cortisol, a stress related hormone. Cortisol is produced by our body’s stress fighting gland, the adrenal. Cortisol helps you body store fat not used after the body’s other stress related hormone, adrenaline, gets you ready for the big brawl. When you’re under more or less constant stress, your cortisol levels remain elevated for too long, and one of the effects is that excess fat is stored.
A study done at the University of Alabama Birmingham in 2000 linked cortisol with excess belly fat levels. The study noted that belly fat has more cortisol receptors and enzymes than the other adipose tissue in your body.
The study also showed a kind of cortisol double whammy. Test subjects who had secreted high levels of cortisol tended to desire foods higher in fat and simple sugars than did other subjects. The study concludes that this is a direct result of the higher cortisol levels. So, not only does the cortisol in your body make you store fat around your midsection, it also makes you want to eat more of the kinds of foods than make you fat.
Now you can start to see why stress reduction and fat reduction go hand in hand. Interestingly enough, the study also found that taking a cortisol suppressing pill will not combat cortisol’s propensity to make the body store belly fat.
So, four of the main causes of belly fat are diet, genetics, imbalanced hormone levels, and stress. Exercise can help reduce stress, and burn calories, both of which will help you get rid of belly fat.
Until next time…………………. lose your belly fat.
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