Which of these common scenarios have you tried to get rid of belly fat in the past?
- Follow the ‘click bait’ advert that says :”do not eat this food if you want a flat stomach”…
- Eat less
- Exercise more
- Do sit ups
- Drink meal replacement drinks
We blame so much on our belly fat, and we seem to always be trying to reduce our belly fat, but this has been attempted the wrong way in the past by the scenarios listed above.
So many things can contribute to belly fat, but the most common is due to cortisol (stress) levels being at a high level constantly due to stress and inflammation.
Stress can be triggered from exercise, external stress (pesticides, toxins), lack of recovery to the body and certain foods. All of these situations cause inflammation, which causes our cortisol levels to rise.
So exercising more and eating less, stressing over eating certain foods and spending time doing exercises that do not incorporate other muscle groups are not the answer to losing Belly Fat…
In relation to the scenarios mentioned above that you may have tried before, I have listed a few tips on what would be more beneficial to you when it comes to losing Belly Fat:
LET’S EXPLORE:
Scenario #1: What not to eat ‘Click Bait’
Obviously you need to select whole foods, but what’s more important is to CHEW your food…
Chew your food, stop gulping it down in a rush whilst on the run.
Chew your food at least 30-42 times to send message that food is coming into your stomach, this will allow the nutrients to be broken down and distributed into the relevant areas the body needs it to go.
The food can then go to the relevant stations where the body needs these nutrients. Currently we live in a world that ‘eats on the go’, not only do we not even take time to sit and eat, half the time you don’t realise what you’ve eaten.
Marketers response to this is to drink ‘on the go’ meal shakes and pre-packaged foods, that are ‘fat-free’ or ‘high protein’ whatever it is to make you think this is the answer to your belly fat concerns.
You want to have a relaxed and anti-inflammatory response – “rest and digest” not “fight and flight” by gulping and pushing food through quickly.
REMEMBER BACK IN THE DAY: When we were young we were told to wait till our food went down before we swum, same applies you need to rest and digest your food.
Your body can not process food AND try to keep you alive whilst exercising, so allow food to be digested all the time not just before exercising; and ‘gentle walk’ after eating is good for the blood sugar levels as well.
Scenario #2: Eat less – SUGAR
This is obvious: ‘Sugar increases insulin’ – Insulin resistance drives more fat growth.
If all your cells are saturated and you can’t burn sugar in your muscles – guess what happens to the sugar!
It goes right into fat cells and fat actually is its own exocrine gland.
It produces a hormone that’s going to cause fats – it’s going to basically produce leptin which is another hormone that will decrease our body’s ability to signal satiation and signal that we’re full, and it’s also going to produce more sex hormones like estrogen.
So if we have more fat cells, fat cells will actually produce more hormones and throw our inner body balance out, our hormones will send the wrong signals to our brain.
To keep it simple – The likes of estrogen will increase with more fat cells and this affects leptin (the hormone that tells you that you are full.)
END RESULT: Will make you feel hungrier and eat more of the same junk that got you there to begin with.
Hormones offset each other by foods you eat, and nutrients you miss in your diet, and when your body is in stress, the ‘home base’ for stress is in the belly.
Scenario #3: Exercise more
WHAT’S BEST:
It’s not about exercising more, it’s about being smart, so I suggest :
Interval training but really short periods, do not go for long slow-steady-state runs, meaning when you’re struggling for breath the entire time, because this is placing stress on the respiratory system and the signal to the body will be I’m going to die!
Keep it short and sweet, before the body realises feels like you are killing it, then get into your recovery session as soon as you can, and the body will sense it’ll be ok.
In doing this you have sent a signal to the body – it needs to change, and the smart cookie that it is, it will adapt, and it’ll be ready for the next training session.
You always should feel fresh and ready to train – if you don’t, you should listen to the body to rest a bit more.
REMEMBER: over stressing the body with too much exercise causes cortisol to stay elevated and where is cortisol’s home base….THE BELLY
Great tip:
-You want to concentrate on hill sprints, short bike sprints, squat jumps and push ups until you cannot do any more with correct technique.
–Don’t keep adding more exercises in – just push harder and then recover smart.
-The more you focus on recovery, the more your body will change.
Scenario #4: The sit up
CORE WORK:
How many people think that sit ups are an effective exercise?
Women feel that they get bulky with weights, to be blunt this is hard to do, you do not create muscle in 4 weeks to the point it makes you bulky.
The ‘bulky’ comment comes down to focusing on your diet, and elimination of foods that cause you to inflame (sugar, grains and dairy – in most people’s situation).
However to get a good response with your ‘core’ muscles, weight training is amazing and any lifting, and pushing actions require core strength.
So instead of ignoring weight training and just doing sit ups, you’d get a much better response with a good strength training program, with a supportive eating plan that helps you lose body fat.
Losing the body fat will take away that ‘bulky’ look and the muscles you have gained will look lean without the body fat sitting on top of them.
GREAT ADDITIONAL CORE EXERCISES:
– Planking on your elbow and toes are great to add in as well, pus planking on hands and toes is always great for shoulder and core strength.
– Roll outs: rolling a bar or uni wheel away from you.
Scenario #5: Meal replacement shakes
CYCLING FOOD instead:
Don’t starve yourself of the wholesome nutrients you need with synthetic additives, hidden sugars etc in a meal replacement shake. You need to be happy with what you are nourishing your body with.
Meal replacement shakes mainly cause hunger and inflammation, which again stirs up stress in the body.
Each week (especially for a women through their cycle) you will have weeks where you are more hungry than others, as your body needs the support.
This also relates to busier weeks than others.
So ‘cycling’ means one or two weeks you’ll eat more and feel like exercising more, and other weeks you’ll eat less and not feel like exercising as much. This is cycling.
When you restrict the body of what it needs with just shakes all the time, what happens? Yes the body stresses and then the cortisol is again elevated… and where is cortisol’s ‘home base’… THE BELLY.
Cycling helps to keep the body changing (adapting) and you want the body fat to come off, not become stubborn due to too much stress and cortisol rising.
TRUE FACT:
- Overweight and underweight women struggle with belly fat.
- Calories matter, but hormones matter too, especially when it come to where we store fat and how to attack stubborn areas of body fat unique to us.
- It’s not too many calories, it’s not too many carbs, it’s not because you are not doing enough exercise: It’s stress.
- The dieting mentality of eat less and exercise more is exactly the wrong approach to take to attack stubborn female belly fat.
If you are a woman doing everything right and still struggling with female belly fat, and especially a thin woman suffering from belly fat, you need to understand that the primary issue for you is stress management.
If you need help please reach out – my Yang & Yin program helps cover this area.
Here’s what others have said about my hormone programs:
“Amazing content. .. it all make so much sense! I’m so excited about this wellness journey that I’m embarking on. Thankyou Kerrie for your fantastic knowledge and commitment. The content has exceeded my expectations 10 fold! Love it! “
– Kristina C, Grovedale
“Kerrie is such an advocate of healthy eating and taking care of your body in the long term, but also concentrating on a healthy mind and reducing the daily stress in your life which has such an impact on your health too. ”
– Lizzie B, Anakie
