As a personal trainer over the years, belly fat has traditionally been the most stubborn of fat deposits to shift in male and female. The truth be know is that this is due to the multifaceted role that hormones and in particular stress plays in our lives.
Stress causes belly fat? Yes.
In anatomical terms the level of belly fat that resides under our skin, or subcutaneous layer, can be measured and tracked like we do with our Body Composition Testing protocols largely based on a technique called Biosignature Modulation.
Then we have the deeper layer of fat that lies deep to this that can cause distension and a pot belly look.
Body fat doesn’t go down in certain areas to spite you. Most of talk about fat like it has some malicious role in the body; plaguing our minds and thoughts to the extent that we now report to labelling or name calling areas that are stubborn to shift (“think ‘moobs’, ‘bingo wings’ and ‘muffin top’).
The truth be known is that this is to do with reasons that are far more complicated than we give credit for and the answer lays largely in our hormones dictated to by how we are genetically and then what we think, eat, live and do to disrupt this balance leading to abnormal levels of body fat distribution.
Have a genetic predisposition to diabetes and poor blood sugar management and eat too much refined sugar, stress a lot, stay inactive and get little sleep? Watch your love handles grow.
Have a genetic trigger to sex hormone imbalances, and drink beer, piss and moan about the world, stress, get little sleep and expose yourself to a plethora of toxicity in your cosmetics, environment and food? Watch your moobs develop nicely.
Body fat can been viewed as an organ by itself. Biologically active, a storer of toxins and energy source, body fat is there for a reason. For example, fat cells are readily combusted for energy. Visceral fat which is the fat surrounding our organs, and can’t really be seen, pumps out inflammatory markers called cytokines that can make you feel pretty rough. Fat soluble toxins that we accumulate through our environment are also shuttled there out of harms way.
Hormones Dictate Our Body Fat Patterns – Our Choices Pull the Trigger
Belly fat accumulates in this particular area due to an imbalance in several hormones but predominantly cortisol, insulin and estrogen.
All three hormones play a melody with our fat levels. Cortisol linked to our stress patterns will encourage the accumulation of fat in our belly area. Insulin, our blood sugar ‘highway patrol man’ controls the level of sugar we have in our blood too. When this is out of balance through our penchant for sugar, grains, refined cereals and love of Haribos for a pick me up and you are on a winning formula for belly fat gain.
Estrogen is a little bit more complex. When in excess this hormone begins to stimulate the production of estrogen sensitive tissues which as you can probably guess is in our stubborn to shift areas such as our belly, thighs and backside.
In my experience though let’s look at the more dominant player in belly fat. Over the years I have noticed that once you pick off the stressors (as listed below) one-by-one reductions in belly fat are seen!
This needn’t be a complicated process. Look no further than stripping your nutrition right back to basics, drinking more clean filtered water and getting some exercise and a good nights sleep.
See – I told you it would be rocket science.
However, I know that a little understanding goes a long way.
It is recorded that there are 30 times more cortisol receptor sites in our belly area than any other area of our body making it sensitive to this hormone. Couple this with the role of the greater omentum (a large fatty tissue sitting underneath our more ‘pinchable’ layer of fat) and you can see how a pot belly is par for the cause when we gain weight.
Once an imbalance occurs with these hormones our belly fat levels will increase and body fat is deposited there over most other areas.
As our stress levels rise, so does our disposition to store body fat in this ‘stress sensitive’ area. This hormone encourages fat to be stored there.
A Little Closer Look At Cortisol (But not too close)
Cortisol is a great hormone that is pumped out in response to a stressful situation. Think about that guy or girl who cut you up and nearly made you crash in your car. Bet your heart was racing fast, your breathing rate up a little and you were hyper alert ready to start a confrontation at the next set of traffic lights.
Put it this way it isn’t the bad guy. If there was apathy all the time you would struggle to see the danger in the fire that is about to engulf your kitchen, or the car that is coming at you in a head on collision.
That is your ‘fight or flight reponse’ set into full gear by your stress hormones. In the past it was there to alert us to danger – see a lion and either run or stand and fight and probably pee your pants.
The problem is nowadays we no longer are at the bottom of the food chain. Instead we live at 150 mph with cortisol and stress a dripping tap rather than a slap in the face followed by a quick ‘get over it’.
Interestingly enough, zebras’ stress response only lasts 3 minutes according to expert Robert Sapolsky. Get chased by a lion, live (or die), return back buddies and everything is forgotton about and their stress hormone levels have reverted back to normal quicker than a toddler’s reaction to saying ‘no you can’t have any more ice cream’.
In a simplified way, cortisol raises our blood sugar too during a stress reponse (well – we need energy to run away from that lion don’t we?) raising our blood sugar levels enough to then force the kicking in of our blood sugar policeman – insulin.
Insulin doesn’t like our blood sugar to get too high. As a result it will shuttle the blood sugar back down to normal levels but store any excess energy not used as fat on the belly and the love handle.
Moral of the story is chill out!
It also does a great job in pulling amino acids from our muscles to be used as energy. These are the building blocks of our muscles. Think about the prison camp sufferers in WWII, emaciated and physically broken. I bet their low calorie intake and stress levels were enough to ensure cortisol was pumping around the body 24/7.
Stress comes in all forms:
1) Work
2) Relationships
3) Financial
4) Worry
5) Self Esteem
6) Mental and Emotional Trauma
7) Previous Experiences
8) Excessive Exercise
9) Nutritional (Allergies)
10) Lack of Sleep
11) Environmental Toxins
12) Dehydration
13) Sugar Highs and Lows
14) Physiological
15) Genetic
With this extensive list and there are plenty more I am sure you can all think of – stress comes in so many forms! In Part II we look at how we can go about correcting our stress levels and how this then will contribute to a reduction in belly fat.
John Lark is a personal trainer in Dublin.
Call 01-5052131 and find out about the new Sphere D2 Location, 21 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2 and find out more about the 7 Day Kick Start Programme for €99.
