Belly Fat after Age 40 – The Causes, Dangers and How to Lose It

A large amount of research has been done over the past few years to understand the causes and effects of belly fat.  Belly fat can be dangerous to your health in more ways than being overweight.  Having large amounts of belly fat can cause you to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and can lead to diabetes.  It has been found to be a factor in developing certain cancers and may even contribute to causing dementia in some people.  With all of these concerns about the effects of belly fat it is important to understand what causes it and how you can lose it and keep it off.

What causes belly fat?

It may seem that the day you turned 40 the belly fat appeared but there are more causes than age.  Here are the main reasons you gain belly fat:

• Stress – High stress, either mental or physical, for long periods of time can wear down your body and make it feel as if it is in a fight-or-flight mode.  High levels of stress cause your stress hormone, cortisol, to increase, which then stimulates your appetite.  The stress also signals your body to store fat deep inside the belly, the natural place where fuel for stress is stored.  As long as you feel stressed your body will continually store fat in this area.

• Hormone changes – Estrogen in women and testosterone in men under age 40 works as a barrier against developing high amounts of deep belly fat but as women and men age these hormones decrease.  This decrease takes away their protection from gaining weight, especially in the belly. 

• Metabolism – When you were younger you may have been able to eat whatever you wanted and not exercise but now that you are older you can’t get away with that so easily.  Your metabolism begins to slow down so you need less food than before.  You also need to exercise to keep your metabolism up and create lean muscle.  Without exercise fat takes over where muscle should be.  

• Heredity – Studies have found that the way you gain fat, especially belly fat, can be inherent.  Certain genes in your body may dictate exactly where your body will develop and store fat.  Heredity, however, is no excuse for ignoring belly fat.

Dangerous fat versus normal fat

There are two types of fat you can gain, subcutaneous and visceral.  Subcutaneous fat is the outer layer of fat you develop on your body.  It is the fat you feel when you pinch your skin.  Having a small layer of this type of fat on your body is normal and is not dangerous for you.  Subcutaneous fat is dangerous only if you are so overweight that there is strain on your vital organs.

Visceral fat develops deep inside the body and can deposit itself on important organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys.  Too much visceral fat can cause an array of difficulties to your organs.  It can also cause many life-threatening diseases and disorders.

People with high levels of visceral fat are more likely to develop high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.  There is also a higher risk of gallstones.  Some cancers have been linked to visceral fat such as breast and colon cancer.  It has also been found that people with high amounts of visceral fat have a high risk of developing dementia in their later years.

Recently it has been discovered that visceral fat can cause two harmful proteins in the body, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6, to surge.  The increase in these proteins can cause chronic inflammation in the body.  This chronic inflammation makes it difficult for the body to heal when it’s sick and can aggravate heart disease.  Inflammation caused by visceral fat can also enter the brain and damage nerve cells.  Having belly fat is more than just a vanity problem; it can lower your quality of life and even kill you.

How to lose belly fat

With as dangerous as visceral fat sounds you would think it would be the hardest fat to lose, but it’s not.  Visceral fat is easier to lose than other fat because abdominal fat is metabolically active.  One study showed that people who had lost only 15% of their total body weight had lost 30% of their visceral fat.  So, what’s the best way to lose this dangerous fat?

• Reduce stress – This is easier said than done but if you can reduce even a little of the stress in your life it can help you to lose some of that belly fat.  One way is to tel yourself to stop worrying about the things you have no control over.  Stay away from people who upset you like the whiners and complainers.  Try taking a short walk around the office once or twice a day to get away from your desk and relax your mind.  Ask for help at home.  You can’t do everything so accept help where you can get it.  Any way you can think of to reduce the stress in your life will help.

• Try Yoga or Pilates – While you may think that a strenuous workout routine like aerobics will help you lose belly fat faster the truth is exercise like Yoga or Pilates works much better.  These styles of exercise work out the body while relaxing the mind.  You relieve stress and get a great workout all at once.

• Walking or weight training – Walking for 30 minutes, four days a week will help you work off the fat while relaxing the mind.  Weight training has also been found to be a good way to work off belly fat. 

• Healthy diet – Stay away from Trans fats and try to eat healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.  If you eat the same amount of food each day but choose healthier foods you will still be able to combat that belly fat.  You do not have to go on a strict diet; you only need to watch the types of food you eat.

• Sleep – Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night.  Sleep helps your body to relax and regenerate itself.  Getting enough sleep will also help you reduce stress.

While your goal is to lose as much belly fat as possible losing even a little of it will benefit your health.  Belly fat is also not measured in pounds but in inches.  You will know you have lost that dreadful visceral fat when the tape measurer shows you’ve lost inches on your waist.  By controlling your belly fat you will give yourself the gift of a healthier, happier future.

Even though some miracle diets assert that eliminating fat or carbohydrates from one's diet is the key to weight loss, it's a fact that such claims are just not true. No matter what fad diet is making headlines, the truth is that the best diet for weight loss is a balanced diet.

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