As we age, it becomes harder to lose fat whether by diets or exercise. Most of the time, we gain weight around our midsection and it can be very difficult to lose this fat. You may have noticed yourself developing a beer belly when you never touch the stuff; you are probably beginning to understand belly fat. This is where fat cells will typically settle in your body.
Your body has a natural drive to store energy in the form of belly fat to guard you against times of scarcity. Although in western societies, there is rarely if ever a risk of famine, our bodies have not kept pace with the progress of our society. Our bodies are still inclined to accumulate belly fat even when there is no shortage of food.
What happens when we attempt to lose fat through a diet, our body interprets this as a sign that we are experiencing a famine, meaning that your body will try to hold on to as much of the food energy as it can. It stores this energy in the form of fat. The key is to trick your metabolism by eating a variety of foods so that your body will not think that you are starving.
In times of extreme stress or when you are very busy, you may eat less and still gain weight. This is because your body sees the situation quite differently than you do. Your body thinks you are going through a period of scarcity – and the stress hormone Cortisol also plays a role in encouraging belly fat formation.
Many diets do not give the brain enough variety, and it will decrease the fat burning hormones and metabolism to meet the calorie intake. So, if you drop from 2,500 calories a day, to 1,000, your metabolism will drop from burning 2,500 calories to 1,000 and your weight will plateau. If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, then you need to eat a variety of foods, changing every couple days, since it will take a couple days for your body’s metabolism to catch up.
To lose fat by dieting, you may have to “fool” the brain and fat hormones into thinking that it will continue to receive enough calories to fuel the metabolism and it is alright to burn excess fat from fat storage when needed, causing you to lose belly fat.
When you diet to lose fat, you have to make sure to eat the right amounts of nutritional calories and fat burning calories to keep your metabolism and fat burning hormones working at peak efficiency. This allows you to lose belly fat while taking in fewer calories. Your body will only use your stored fat cells after using up the calories you are taking in, meaning that reducing your calorie intake is vital to losing belly fat.
The best way to understand belly fat and to begin losing that excess fat is to eat a variety of foods more than three times a day to keep your metabolism operating at a high rate, like the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet that is highly recommended at the link below.
