What Contributes To Belly Fat In Women?

We all know that belly fat can be caused by lack of exercise and poor nutrition. What’s not often discussed is that hormonal imbalances can significantly contribute to creating belly fat in women. Here’s a step by step approach on how to tackle each in order to lose belly fat:

1. Hormones

One such hormone that can contribute to abdominal fat deposits in women is Estrogen. Estrogen is produced by fat cells which in turn cause fat production. This cycle of hormone and fat cell production is what causes abdominal fat gain.

Stopping this Estrogen cycle and joining a health and fitness program is the best way to counteract hormonal imbalances. The following steps outline some things you can try to improve your hormone imbalances:

1. Get you hormones evaluated. A hormone profile can show the ratio of estrogen to progesterone in your body. You would be considered estrogen dominant, if this ratio was out of balance.
2. Start an estrogen-lowering program. Your physician will determine whether you will need to increase your progesterone levels with bio-identical hormones.
3. Increasing fiber intake (choosing fruits, vegetables and whole grains high in fiber) or substituting with fiber supplements (i.e. 30-50 grams/day). This will help lower your Estrogen levels and it will help reduce your belly fat.
4. Add Indoles (i.e. broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower) to your diet or add  supplements such as indole-3-carbinol.
5. Increase essential fatty acids in your diet. They are considered essential because your body cannot produce them (that is, they’re only obtained through food). Essential fatty acids regulate the body’s prostaglandin production which in turn help regulate estrogens.
6. Add vitamin C to your diet.
7. Exercise:
8. When it comes to exercise, it’s best to choose a cardio regimen or a class that focuses on HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). This type of program will burn the most belly fat and it will also help induce the “After Burn” effect. Essentially, it will help you burn more fat calories for 2-3 hours after you’ve completed your workout. It’s also important to do strength training along with a HIIT, because strength training will help you build muscle mass. Muscle is the engine in the body. The more of it there is, the more belly fat calories the body will burn at rest.
9. Nutrition:
10. Studies have shown that you should use the following Macro-nutrient breakdown in your diet (Carbohydrates=25%, Proteins=40%, and Fats=35%) to help burn the maximum amount of belly fat. There are many calorie tracking apps that can help you do that.
11. You should stay away from sugar and or sweetened drinks.
12. Make sure to have protein with every meal. Protein will satiate you. Moreover, there have been several studies that show that amount and quality of protein consumed is inversely related to fat in the belly in women.
13. As stated earlier, reduce the refined cards in your diet (sugar, candy, white bread, etc). This should will be easy to do, especially if you keep your protein intake high.
14. Increase the soluble fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber may be particularly effective at reducing the belly fat (i.e. plant foods like vegetables, fruits, and legumes). As mentioned earlier, soluble fiber does this by lowering estrogen levels.

Are you ready to #finishitwithfinishfit?

Tags: Body Fat Loss, Calorie Reduction, Fat Loss, Fitness, Getting In Shape, Nutrition, Weight Loss