Yeah, My Belly Is Fat - So What?

Glad you asked, but I am not sure you are going to like the answer. You see, belly fat, especially the kind that has accumulated to the point where it has become not only an eyesore, but a hindrance to the way you do things, is a real health risk. I am going to tell you why ignoring the problem could be one of the BIGGEST mistakes you will ever make, and then I am going to help you try to flatten your tummy by explaining how it managed to get away on you to begin with, and what can be done to reverse the sorry trend!

Most people will encounter a problem with belly fat sooner or later. For the guys, fat tends to accumulate around the midsection before it collects anywhere else. For the ladies it tend to go into their thighs and butt area, but it eventually makes its way onto their belly too. No one is immune to the slowing of their metabolism as they age and move into a more sedentary lifestyle. Eating the poor diet that most of us indulge in out of sheer convenience is another huge factor contributing to the "rise of the pot belly".

You may have thought that the accumulation of fat around your midsection is an inevitable consequence of aging, and that there is not a whole lot you can do about that other than to go onto a restrictive diet of some type to slim down. But this is not the case. There are TWO primary reasons for the accumulation of fat around the midsection. These are lack of physical activity, and poor eating habits. Now this information probably comes as not great surprise. But let's look at this again with a slightly more critical eye to see what is true that you might never have considered before.

The main reason that your metabolism slows down (the rate at which your body burns energy) is that when you get beyond the age of 25 years or so the demands of life tend to rob you of time for physical activity. Most of us end up behind a desk every day, and the most exercise we get is in the form of walking to the nearest food court for lunch. The result is that our bodies lose muscle mass over time - up to as much as perhaps 10 percent per decade. Now this would not be such a bad thing if it was not for the fact that muscle tissue is the main fat burning tissue in our bodies. The more we lose, the less excess fat can be burned from our body, and in particular from the belly area.

The good news is that adding physical activity to your routine can result in muscle growth, and therefore metabolic volume. The more muscle, the more quickly you burn off fat. Of course, to build muscle you need to engage in strenuous physical activity. Forget the cardio workout, the walking, and the swimming. Those activities may build your stamina and work off a little weight, but they will not build the kind of muscle that is needed to burn through the accumulation of fat that may be present around your midsection right now.

The other primary factor that contributes to abdominal fat gain is eating unhealthy foods. This is a big subject that can only be hinted at here. The bottom line is that most of the food we grab today on the go is processed food that has lost much of the nutritional content that it possessed before being carted into the food processing establishment that prepared it and packaged it for your local food store. Food today tends to contain too much sugar and that is the number one reason that we are fattening up so quickly. Sugar, in all of the various forms found in processed foods, is easily converted into fat in our bodies when we ingest more than we can use for immediate energy requirements.

The fat that builds in your midsection is bothersome. It nags at you from the mirror whenever you turn sideways in the bathroom. But it does not reveal its real cost to being a part of your body until much later when it effects ultimately send you to see your physician for what you think at first is an entirely unrelated problem. Because in reality, when you have an accumulation of fat at the midsection, you also have fat deep inside you that is wrapped around your vital organs and doing things you never suspected might be going on.

You see, fat is not as idle as you might suspect it to be. It secretes hormones and other chemicals that can upset the body's normal chemical balance and affect your health.

When excess body fat collects around the tummy rather than on the limbs, it should be regarded as a visual sign of possible hormonal and metabolic turmoil within you. And once that abdominal fat has increased to the point where it presents a hard rounded appearance, it is almost guaranteed that 'hormonal' imbalance is driving its growth.

In particular, this developing "pot belly" is generally due to the condition known as 'insulin resistance' which occurs when the body starts ignoring the blood sugar regulating hormone insulin which clears sugar from the blood. This condition is the precursor to the life-threatening disease known as diabetes. But there are a host of other conditions that can also develop when fat leeches its way into the body - hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and even cancer.

It is way easier to take care of your body before the problems build up than to have to scramble when a health crisis occurs, by which time it may be too late to repair the damage. So if you want to life a longer, healthier life, take measures to flatten your tummy while you can. Think of it this way, you are never going to be in a better position to take advantage of your (relative) youth to get this done than right now.