You can call it pooch, potbelly, pudge or paunch, but belly fat is the major reason why women want to lose weight. But here’s the truth, even after considerable weight loss, belly fat tends to stay! No one wants to look like a puffer fish all their lives and that’s why we are gonna make things easier by listing down reasons why your belly fat isn’t melting away. Belly fat can be of two types – subcutaneous fat (layer beneath the skin) and visceral fat (around the muscles and around abdominal organs). Visceral fat is considered dangerous because it is linked to high risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other life-threatening disorders. This bulge refuses to budge even with intense exercise and dieting, and that’s why we all call it “stubborn” because no matter what you do, the fat on the belly remains. In this post, we will find out why belly fat is called stubborn and ways to activate the fat-burning process around your mid section. In this post, we list down 14 Reasons Why your Belly Fat Isn’t Melting Away.
Why Belly Fat is Different and Stubborn?
As we have mentioned above, it’s a bit difficult to trigger burning of belly fat and that’s why spot reduction is a remote possibility. The breakdown of fat happens through a process called “lipolysis.” Elaborating the fat-burning process further – Certain chemicals such as adrenaline and noradrenaline get inside fat cells and attach themselves to alpha or beta receptors on these cells and stimulate the release of fat molecules from within. These fatty acids are then utilized as fuel when there’s calorie deficit. Now, studies have revealed that alpha receptors obstruct the process of fat burning whereas beta receptors facilitate it. The fat cells that have beta receptors are more sensitive to fat burning while those with alpha receptors don’t respond actively. That’s why, belly fat, which is comprised mainly of fat cells with more alpha receptors do not get stimulated by lipolysis much. We now know that fat cells around the belly don’t respond that well to this process because abdominal fat cells have more alpha receptors rather than beta receptors which respond readily to the fat-burning process, and that’s why belly fat is stubborn.
14 Reasons Why your Belly Fat Isnt Melting Away:
1. Transfat: If there’s one category of food that you should totally avoid to reduce belly fat – it’s transfat because not only does it increase the fat deposition around the waist, it also moves fat from other parts of the body to the belly area. Here’s a list of 15 Transfat Food that one should avoid to lose weight.
2. You are Eating Dinner Late into the Night: All those extra calories that you eat late would most likely get converted into fat, and mostly around the belly area. So, do stick to the meal timings on Rati Beauty weight loss diets to avoid building up of belly fat.
3. Having Refined Carbs for Dinner: Refined carbs have simple carbs that spike up insulin levels and since insulin is also a fat-storage hormone, the body tends to convert these carbs into fat, particularly around the waist.
4. Sleeping for Less Hours in the Night: One of the biggest reasons that leads to building up of belly fat is sleeping for less than 5 hours in the night. It is unbelievable, but having a sound sleep at night, provides ample rest to the body, boosts metabolism, raises the level of fat-burning hormones and enzymes, and helps the whole weight loss process a great deal.
5. High Stress Level: Continuous and prolonged stress is extremely bad for the health. Chronic stress can raise inflammation level and mar any effort to burn belly fat. Also, cortisol has bene strongly linked to abdominal obesity.
6. Love for Fast food: Fast food or junk food usually have high amounts of sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate and other harmful ingredients that can quickly raise inflammation and increase the level of belly fat.
7. Too Much Sodium: Not only can belly fat lead to water retention and bloating, studies have found out that a high-sodium diet would lead to increase in abdominal circumference.
8. Too Much White Sugar: We all know now that insulin not only regulates blood sugar levels, it it also directs cells to store fat when excess calories are available. White sugar or any kind of sugar causes rapid insulin spikes and triggers ballooning up of fat cells and also creation of new fat cells. Also, with chronic stress and inflammation (which sugar triggers in the body), the preferred storage site for fat is around the waist.
9. Calcium Deficiency: People who have adequate amount of calcium tend to lose belly fat more quickly with the right diet and exercise than people who have calcium deficiency. So, increase calcium in your body through these natural foods.
10. Not Getting Enough Monosaturated Fatty Acids: These are a group of fatty acids that are considered “healthy.” It is extensively found in olive oil, ghee, nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and help to actually burn belly fat.
11. You are eating Packaged Cereals Every Morning: Eating a breakfast loaded with high amounts of sugar, flavours, and additives is extremely bad for overall weight loss. Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast, particularly to burn the abdominal fat.
12. No Magnesium in your Diet: Magnesium is a mineral that is required in a lot of metabolic functions including in the proper functioning of insulin hormone. When insulin functions normally, it’s hard to stall the weight loss process.
13. Your Daily Diet is Bland: People who eat colorful food tend to have smaller waist sizes. Colourful fruits and veggies like strawberries, tomatoes, beans, apple, green leafy vegetables, millets, bell peppers have antioxidants, flavonoids, phytonutrients, vitamin C that help to cut down the belly fat. Check out Rati Beauty weight loss diets to find out how you can make diet food delicious and lose weight.
14. You haven’t Heard about HIIT: High-intensity interval training exercises are considered the best at burning calories, reducing insulin and cortisol levels, and trigger burning of belly fat. Here are some HIIT exercises that you can try at home to reduce belly fat.
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