different places. Some people just naturally carry weight in their midsections (an apple shape) while others are more bottom-heavy (a pear shape).
Young women often gain weight on their legs and bottoms, while men are more likely to pack it on their bellies. This may be one reason why men in their 30s and 40s are much more likely than women of the same age to suffer from heart disease. Once women reach menopause, they tend to start spreading out in the middle. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is also the time when their risk of heart disease catches up with men’s.
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Whatever your age or gender, a life of TV and fast food can go right to your belly. A study by researchers at Duke University suggests that shunning exercise is an especially effective way to put on belly fat. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, found that just eight months of inactivity increased visceral fat — the potentially dangerous layer of belly fat — by about 9 percent. On the bright side, people who exercised vigorously for eight months actually reduced their visceral fat by about 8 percent.
A sedentary lifestyle may not be the only path to a large belly. There’s growing evidence that continued stress — such as dissatisfaction that comes from a high-pressure, low-paying job — can encourage the buildup of fat around the midsection. When under stress, the body produces hormones such as cortisol that put your entire body on high alert. Among other things, the hormones seem to encourage the buildup of belly fat. In fact, some experts believe that a potbelly might be the body’s defense mechanism against stress. Fat cells may actually break down cortisol, giving the rest of the body a slight respite from stress.
No quick fix
A bulge in the belly is a wake-up call. If you can trim down your midsection, you’ll go a long way toward preventing the health problems associated with belly fat. A healthy lifestyle can ward off fat from top to bottom, and especially, the middle. When you lose weight, your body will make getting rid of belly fat a top priority. If you manage to lose just 5 to 10 percent of your overall body weight, you can reduce the hazardous layer of belly fat by as much as 30 percent. If stress is a factor in your buildup of fat, incorporating some relaxation techniques may be useful as well.
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Unfortunately, if you’re concerned about the amount of fat you have around the middle, you won’t find peace of mind in a cosmetic surgeon’s office. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Klein and colleagues dashed any hopes of a quick fix. The study found that women who had about 30 percent of their body fat suctioned off didn’t move any closer to avoiding diabetes or heart disease. Specifically, the procedure didn’t lower blood pressure or improve their response to insulin. “We removed billions of fat cells, but we didn’t change the size of the fat cells that remained,” he says. It’s possible, he adds, that it’s the size of fat cells — not their sheer number — that really has an impact on health.
If you’re ready to banish your excess belly fat, schedule an appointment with your doctor. The two of you can come up with the best, healthiest strategy for weight loss. The most successful approaches typically combine a healthy, low-calorie diet that’s also low in saturated fat and sugar with regular exercise. As the Duke University study showed, exercise alone can be enough to trim stomach fat.
A perfectly flat stomach may not be within your reach, but a healthier body certainly is.