Even if you lose weight overall, the fat in your lower abdomen, or belly fat, remains a major problem that bothers most people today. The fat that accumulates around your abdominal organs is scientifically called visceral fat. It is not just unsightly, but is also a major cause of heart disease and diabetes. Here are the 5 main scientific reasons why your belly fat won’t go down no matter how hard you try:
Insulin Resistance & High Carb Diet: The rice, gourd, bakery sweets, and sweet drinks we eat are very high in carbohydrates and sugar. When these reach the body, glucose in the blood rises rapidly and the body releases a large amount of insulin hormone to control this. When this continues for a long time, the cells become insulin resistant, and the body stores all this excess glucose as visceral fat around the stomach.
Severe stress and cortisol: If you are under severe stress, no matter how much exercise you do, your stomach will not reduce. When stress increases, the adrenal gland produces a hormone called cortisol. This hormone slows down the body’s metabolism and sends a message to the body to concentrate all the fat in the abdomen.
Sleep deprivation and slow metabolism: When the body does not get 7-8 hours of deep sleep every day, it can disrupt the digestive system and metabolism. When sleep is reduced, the hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, increases and the hormone leptin, which controls appetite, decreases. This causes you to eat more at night and accumulate fat in the body.
Aging & Hormonal Changes: As we age, our muscle mass decreases and fat accumulates more easily. In men, a decrease in testosterone can lead to a belly fat. In women, when menopause occurs after the age of 45-50, the estrogen hormone decreases. This affects the distribution of body fat and causes fat to move directly from the thighs to the abdomen.
Wrong Exercise Methods (Spot Reduction Myth): Doing hundreds of ‘Crunches’ or only abdominal exercises every day is not enough to reduce belly fat. Scientifically, it is not possible to reduce fat in a specific part of the body (Spot Reduction). Another reason for not doing cardio exercises that involve the whole body is not reducing belly fat.
