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.
It is part of the body’s natural defense mechanism against famine-to store belly fat. In modern times, our metabolism has not changed to tell it that it is alright to get rid of that belly fat, we don’t need the fat stores to fight famine, and we can run to the ice cream stand or a fast food restaurant if we need belly fat storage.
When you try to lose fat by dieting, the body’s metabolism sends a signal to the brain that tells the fat burning or fat storing hormones that you are experiencing a famine and hold onto any empty calories you take in. The body thinks if you are taking in calories that are empty in nutrition, you have nothing else to eat, so it holds onto as many of those calories as it can, many times as belly fat. You have to fool the metabolism by eating different foods, so it will not think it is experiencing famine.
When you are exceptionally busy or stressed, you may not eat much - but you can still gain weight. This as a result of the metabolism thinking you are experiencing a famine, as well as the effects of Cortisol, an enzyme which is responsible for among other things, storing belly fat.
Most diets do not offer enough variety to keep your metabolism and fat burning hormones at the necessary levels to match your caloric intake. What happens is that if you drop the amount of calories you are taking in, your body will respond by slowing your metabolism to only burn that amount of calories; meaning that you will reach a plateau and again find it difficult to lose weight. If you’re trying to diet to lose fat, you should change up your diet every few days to stay ahead of your metabolism.
To lose belly fat, you have to fool your brain and your fat burning hormones into thinking that you are still getting ample calories, which will move your metabolism towards using up the food energy stored as belly fat.
When dieting to lose fat, you need to balance your fat burning hormone levels and your metabolism by eating the right amount of nutritional and fat burning calories. This will let you lose belly fat even while eating a lower calorie diet. Since your body will only use stored fat after burning what you are taking in, you will have to have a lower caloric intake while keeping your metabolism high.
Once you understand belly fat, it is easy to lose those excess pounds. You just need to eat a varied diet at frequent intervals to keep your metabolism burning off fat; the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet does just that and is highly recommended at the link below.
