Table of contents:
- Why does someone who is thin can have a distended stomach?
- What happens if you have a lot of belly fat?
- How to get rid of belly fat?
Your body weight could be at range normal, but why is your stomach still bloated?
Fat in the stomach that causes bloating is not just ordinary fat that is stored under the skin. The type of fat stored in the stomach is called fat visceral. These fats are located between the organs in your stomach and are biologically active, producing components that are harmful to your health.
Why does someone who is thin can have a distended stomach?
If you feel that your weight is not over normal but your stomach is still distended, then there are several factors that can cause this to happen.
- Age: age has a big influence on how the body processes fat. Women in particular, are more prone to accumulation of fat in the stomach, especially after menopause.
- The exercise you are doing is not quite right: cardio training alone is not effective at burning belly fat. You need to do a combination of weight training and cardio training. Do sports that can increase your muscle mass, because the more muscle you have, the easier it will be for you to burn excess calories which can turn into fat later in life.
- Too much consumption of processed foods: Processed foods (eg chips, sugary products such as soft drinks, processed from wheat flour such as bread, pasta, etc.) increase the risk of inflammation in your body. Belly fat is linked to inflammation, so eating these types of foods increases your risk of having belly fat.
- The type of fat you eat: your body reacts differently depending on what type of fat you eat. Saturated fat (which is abundant in meat and milk and processed products) can increase the likelihood of belly fat forming. On the other hand, unsaturated fats (such as those found in olive oil and avocado) are anti-inflammatory. However, you are still advised to consume fat within normal limits according to your daily needs.
- Stress: when you are stressed, you tend to want to eat foods that are high in sugar and high in fat, causing excess fat to accumulate in the stomach. In addition, the hormone cortisol (a hormone that works when stressed), increases the amount of fat in the body and widens the size of fat cells. High levels of cortisol are often associated with increased belly fat.
- Lack of sleep: if you sleep less than 6 hours per day, then the chances of your waist circumference getting bigger.
- Genetic: if you are genetically an apple-type body shape, fat will more easily accumulate in the abdomen.
What happens if you have a lot of belly fat?
As previously described, belly fat or visceral fat are biologically active and produce compounds called cytokines. These compounds increase the risk of heart disease. A study published in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Disease in 2014 confirmed that patients did coronary artery disease and having a normal weight but also having belly fat was found to have a higher risk of death when compared to those who spread the fat evenly.
Another reason belly fat is dangerous is that it is close to the blood vessels that carry blood from the intestines to the liver. Belly fat will release substances that also contain free fatty acids and are carried by the bloodstream to the liver. As quoted from Harvard Health Publications, this can affect the production of blood fats. Belly fat has been directly linked to increases in total and LDL cholesterol, decreases in HDL, and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance causes the body's muscles and cells in the liver to not respond adequately to insulin, thereby increasing blood sugar levels and increasing the risk of diabetes.
How to get rid of belly fat?
The good news is belly fat is classified as responsive to physical activity. Regular exercise of moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes per day plus weight training is the easiest way to lose belly fat. If your current weight is within normal limits, then your exercise goal is no longer to lose weight but to gain muscle mass. Muscle cells burn more fat than other body cells, so if you have high muscle mass, you will burn more calories everyday and reduce the pile of fat on your stomach.
Spot exercising such as sit-ups or push-ups can help tone the abdominal muscles, but are not effective for removing fat that is around the organs in the stomach. Combine cardio and weights, inclspot exercising,to get a flat and toned stomach.
Not only exercising, what you eat you also have to pay attention to. Pay attention to the portions and types of food you consume. Expand foods that are included in the types of complex carbohydrates and low-fat protein. Changing the type of fat you normally eat from saturated fat to unsaturated fat can also reduce belly fat build-up.
