What Causes Belly Fat and How Can You Fight it?

Besides monitoring your diet, you should also consider other aspects that could be leading to an increase in belly fat without your knowing it.

Many people have belly fat, some of who aren’t even overweight. Unfortunately, this type of fat can seem to be difficult to get rid of, even after trying various diets and using all kinds of treatment.

However, their efforts might be misdirected and the solution to getting rid of belly fat might not be so complicated after all.

In this article, you will find out what causes belly fat. We’re going to focus on the following causes: protein deficit, hormonal changes, lack of adequate exercise and bad posture.

What causes belly fat?

When we talk about people being overweight, we understand that they have too much fat, or perhaps, water retention, in certain parts of their body. Some body parts that tend to store a lot of fat are the abdomen, thighs, arms, back, and glutes.

However, one of the most common problems for middle-aged men and women is belly fat.

There are even otherwise thin people who have belly fat and struggle to get rid of it, despite easily losing fat in other parts of their bodies.

Below, you’ll discover why this could be the case.

An unbalanced diet

When we wonder why we have belly fat and how we can get rid of it, we often think that we should reduce our calorie intake.

However,  the idea that we should eat better quality food, which is not processed, instead of cutting calories, is becoming more popular.

To follow a balanced diet that helps you to lose belly fat, you should:

• Add a portion of protein in each main meal, alternating between animal protein (preferably organic) and vegetable protein (legumes, nuts, avocado).
• Choose whole grains instead of refined grains.
• Eliminate white sugar from your diet and consume honey, sugar cane honey, whole sugar cane, etc.
• Stop eating processed and hydrogenated fats, present in fried foods, margarines, or confectionery item. Instead you should consume healthy fats, found in cold-pressed vegetable oils (olive, coconut, sesame and flaxseed oils, for instance), avocado, nuts, seeds, oily fish, butter, or ghee.

Living a sedentary lifestyle

Exercise is vital to maintaining a healthy weight. More importantly, it helps you to lose weight from your waist. This is because a lack of exercise causes us to fat, including belly fat.

The most appropriate exercises are high to medium-intensity exercises. It’s enough to do two or three half hour sessions a week of these exercises.

Hormonal changes

Hormonal changes also cause us to gain belly fat. This is especially the case for women going through perimenopause and menopause. However, young women who have high levels of estrogen, can also suffer from hormonal changes.

A balanced diet is also vital for regulating hormones. Supplements such as maca, chasteberry and yam also help in this area.

Furthermore, menopausal women can also benefit from taking evening primrose oil.

Fortunately, some hormonal disorders also disappear overtime, because the body readjusts naturally.

Bad posture

When none of the factors above seem to be related to your case, you should also consider whether your belly fat could be related to bad posture.

Many people suffer from spinal deformations, such as lordosis or escoliosis, also have excess fat on the sides of their body. Therefore, obesity may be linked to bad posture.