There’s no doubt that obesity is the number 1 problem in the US, if not the world. Obesity has been associated with high blood pressure, diabetes, liver diseases and many more.
Thus, it is fair to say, having a flat belly or being in the right weight zone can help you avoid unnecessary diseases.
This article is to inform about the dangers, and what causes belly fat so you know how to prevent or lose your undesirable midsection.
The research on what causes belly fat
Belly fat is the most toxic fat in the world yet so many people are uninformed of its dangers. If you know it can kill you, will you do something about it?
Causes of belly fat can be from a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. People who choose to not move and eat junk all day are the major sufferers of belly fat.
Source: Lifestyle Factors and 5-Year Abdominal Fat Accumulation in a Minority Cohort: The IRAS Family Study
That’s the short answer, but let’s dig deeper and get into more detail why people just put on so much weight in their midsection.
Think of your belly as a bank. When you keep depositing money in your account and not spending a single dime, it will keep growing right?
When you don’t spend that money in your bank account, you will be rich in a few years.
When you eat, you are depositing calories in your belly and waistline. If you don’t spend those calories, it will stay in your stomach. After years of this, you will be rich in fat.
I hope that analogy helped paint a picture in your mind on how you can get fat in the midsection.
How stomach fat can kill you
There are many studies linking fat in your stomach to a whole slew of diseases. Albeit, being fat may not affect you in some cases.
A study found a better determinant of if an individual will suffer from these diseases is a measure of their belly fat (visceral fat).
Source: Abdominal obesity and its metabolic complications: implications for the risk of ischaemic heart disease.
The visceral fat is the fat deep in the pit of your stomach. The fat that attaches itself to your liver, intestines and other organs. This type of fat releases toxins to your organs, poisoning you over time.
If left unchecked, you suffer a very long time before you reach the end.
I know, it’s dramatic and very negative but if it gets your attention to do something about it, I do not care. It may save your life.
Preventing belly fat
Have you heard of the saying, “prevention is better than a cure.” Well, it’s true on so many levels.
When you are sick, it is expensive. Just think of all the therapy, hospital visits, medications, and, or carers that you have to spend on.
While going for a walk or a run will cost you 0 dollars. Even if you buy a treadmill and shoes, so you can exercise in the comfort of your own home is nothing compared to your monthly hospital bill.
The following is what you can do to prevent belly fat and be healthy:
- Exercise
- Eat healthily
Exercise
Well, this is obvious. To lose the calories you ate, you should spend those calories through exercise or physical activity. This is crucial to sedentary people who love to lounge around all day.
If you work a comfortable job, you might want to spend some time after work doing some training.
The simplest workout you can do now is walk or run. There are other exercises you can try like swimming or cycling.
I wrote an article aptly titled, exercises to lose belly fat, it goes more in-depth on these exercises.
Eat healthful
This is the most important factor and the hardest to accomplish. Exercising, working out is EASY compared to watching what you eat.
Any good nutritionist, trainer, will tell you that the number 1 saboteur to getting fit and losing weight is food, in particular, junk food.
I can also attest to this. I myself suffered from a weight problem, and yes, I had a fat belly. It was the fattest part of my body.
I was totally lost. I exercised 5 days a week, did thousands of crunches, but to no success. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong because I was working out to exhaustion, and yet I wasn’t seeing results.
Finally, I bit the bullet, so to speak and paid for e-course teaching how to flatten the stomach and ward off other diseases. Man, that was the best thing I’ve ever done.
Learning this one simple trick helped me get back into shape. I was surprised it works. It also teaches how to ward off unwanted diseases like diabetes.
If your doctor told you are borderline diabetic or you have diabetes, this will help.
Are you eating more than you should? Learn how to turn off the switch and start losing weight.
That’s just some things you can learn in the course. I will not go into details but, it is imperative you start doing something about the fat in your stomach today.
NOT tomorrow, or next month, or next year. The longer you procrastinate, the harder it is to get started. And if you don’t start, your health will only get worse.
List of foods that causes belly fat
Other than eating healthily, you should also avoid these types of food. You’d be surprised at some of them.
- Cakes
- Pork belly
- Cereals
- Deep-fried foods
- Diet sodas and regular
- Fruit juice
- Mixed alcohol
- Sugar
- White bread
- White rice
Cakes
Let’s start with the most obvious, cakes. It is just full of sugar, in addition, all the cream adds lots of fat. It’s a double whammy leading to a heart attack and obesity.
Now, I don’t blame you if you can’t resist cakes. I am the same, it is my weakness. No matter how full I get, I can still have my cake, I’m so bad.
If you have learned anything about me reading these blogs and articles, you will know that I have so many bad habits that prevent me from losing weight.
Every day is a struggle. Being a foodie doesn’t help either. I really do know how it feels, how hard it is to resist temptations. Hence, if I can do it, a 40 y.o. glutton with the worst sweet tooth in the world, why can’t you?
Pork belly
It’s one of my favorite ingredients to add in my dishes, in particular, pork adobo. It’s a Filipino dish just so yum.
But, it is full of fat! You can always change ingredients though so it’s heart-friendly.
To make this dish a little healthier, the pork belly needs to be omitted. Just 100 grams of pork belly contains more than 500 calories.
That is a lot of running to get rid of those delicious pork belly fats.
Cereals
You’d think they are a healthy alternative to bacon and eggs but you could be putting on more weight eating cereals.
Cereals have always been heavy in sugar. Even the so-called diet cereal Special K has 15 grams of sugar per 100 grams of serving. And, they are not even natural sugar but additives.
Eating 200 grams can put you out of the recommended daily sugar intake for women.
Next time you buy cereal, peruse the nutritional information and make sure the amount of sugar is in the low range.
Or you can opt for oats, full of fiber and has 0 sugar. It will even help burn off the deadly visceral fats.
Source: Oat consumption reduced intestinal fat deposition and improved health span in Caenorhabditis elegans model
Deep-fried foods
You should stay away from any food that is deep-fried. Studies show that consuming these types of foods will greatly increase abdominal fats.
Source: Fried food consumption, genetic risk, and body mass index: gene-diet interaction analysis in three US cohort studies
So take a pass on the french fries if you are at MacDonald’s. What the heck are you doing at Maccas anyway? Stay away from fast food joints collectively.
Sodas / Diet sodas
Don’t drink these sugar-laden beverages. Even diet sodas are linked to Diabetes. In a study done by NCBI among diet soda drinkers. All of them have an increased risk of getting diabetes.
The study also showed that even drinking diet sodas, the participants increased their body mass index. The regular soda group increased their BMI’s, much greater than of the diet soda drinkers.
Source: Diet Soda and Sugar-Sweetened Soda Consumption in Relation to Incident Diabetes in the Northern Manhattan Study
Do note other factors could be a contributor to diabetes, singling out sodas as the culprit is inconclusive.
Fruit juice
One cup of orange juice contains about 25 grams of sugar. Even if it is natural sugar, it still adds to your waistline.
NCBI advises that consuming fruit juices should be kept to a minimum, more so in certain groups like children.
Source: Fruit on Obesity
Mixed alcohol
Love bourbon and coke? How about orange and vodka? A night out in the city could lead to more than a hangover. Having more than a few glasses of these types of drinks can add to your midsection. It’s not the alcohol, it’s the added sugar.
Sugar
If you still don’t know by now, sugar is the enemy when it comes to losing belly fat. They are just empty calories that don’t do anything for your body but make you fat.
Numerous diseases have also been linked to sugar consumption. But it’s not fair to single out sugar as the only cause.
In any diet, whether western or eastern, north or south, there are other factors that contribute to diseases.
Source: Relationship between Added Sugars Consumption and Chronic Disease Risk Factors: Current Understanding
But, eliminating sugar is a major part of the equation to losing your belly fat and finally revealing your six-packs.
Conclusion
Abdominal fat is the most dangerous type of fat that you can get rid of by revealing your six-pack abs. So in addition to being sexy, you will also reduce your risks to deadly diseases.
There is absolutely no reason for you not to try and lose your belly fat. And to lose that tumbly wumbly, you need to move.
Move it or lose it, as they say. But, in this case, move it to lose it, is more fitting.
There are also foods that you’d think it’s healthy, but in hindsight, it is nothing but.
There are always new studies that obsolete the previous research. Staying informed could save your life, subscribe.
Or, if you want to know how to quickly lose your belly fat, click on the link below: