The Shape of Things to Come
Of all the e-mails I get sent every day, by far the most common - from men and women alike - are questions about how to lose stubborn belly fat. A pot belly... love handles... the spare tire... call it what you will. It seems to be the area of your body that you'd really like to do something about. Not only is a firm, flat stomach the ultimate symbol of sex appeal, researchers have found that losing abdominal fat is one of the most important steps you can take to stay healthy for life.
The majority of my life, I was too skinny, I could not put weight on no matter what I did, no matter what I ate. My biggest concern was putting weight on, because so many people made fun of me, joked about my lack of weight, called me names or assumed I must be sick because I looked like the runt of the litter (a term my Aunt used to describe me). I easily learned that thin people face the same discrimination as overweight people. You cannot find clothing to fit you, people point and make rude comments, and you become overly focused on the scale and food.
Now, I am in the average weight range for my height. As I aged and my life became more sedentary, I gained weight. I tend to carry my weight more like a man; it all goes to my belly. This is a concern, because this weight gain pattern can place me at a higher risk for heart disease. With a concern for my health, I find myself analyzing my behaviors, exercise, foods and all of the things one does when they are concerned about looking good and being healthy. After all, I was in the weight loss industry, and there I learned that we do not gain 50 pounds over night. We gain it a few pounds at a time. We have an option to take care of it when it is ten pounds or ignore it buy larger sized clothing or clothing with stretch and watch yourself blossom. Sometimes, it is not about the weight the scale says you are, but more about other factors such as where you carry your weight (fat), cholesterol levels and other health factors.
For me, my belly fat is probably due to changes in my life, stress, marriage, change of employment, my age; my metabolism may be slowing down and of course menopause or premenopausal. In addition, I am less active, my career change is more sedentary so I find that I am not burning the same number of calories that I once was. Anyone who watched Dr. Oz on Oprah saw what that belly fat looks like. It is called the omentum and it is fat that surrounds your organs. When the fat is stored in your stomach area, your body has easy access to it, Dr. Oz explained. The fat then creates an inflammatory process that irritates your arteries and puts you at risk for blocked arteries.
This edition of Spavelous "Know You are In The Know" will look closer at this belly fat concern. While I am a classic example of a Yale study which indicated that Non-overweight women may be more vulnerable to the effects of stress and more likely to have excess abdominal fat, and have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol affects fat distribution by causing fat to be stored centrally around the organs. Cortisol exposure can increase visceral fat—the fat surrounding the organs in animals.
Everyone is exposed to stress, but some people may secrete more cortisol than others, and may secrete cortisol each time they face the same stressor. The study indicated that reacting to the same stressors consistently by secreting cortisol would be related to greater visceral fat.
After the first exposure to stress, women with greater abdominal fat felt more threatened by the study’s stressful tasks, performed more poorly on them, and secreted more cortisol. They also reported more life stress. By the third exposure to stress, the lean women with abdominal fat still consistently secreted more cortisol in response to stressful lab tasks, compared to women with peripheral fat.
Lifestyle and age may also influence levels of abdominal fat. Smoking, alcohol and lack of exercise all contribute to greater abdominal fat.
There are many other factors that go into staying in shape. There are the factors we can control and those that we have no control over. In this issue a closer look at how to achieve a flat belly:
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