Stress And Belly Fat

Stress and belly fat go hand in hand. It's a well known fact that stress can zap your energy and leave you feeling tired all the time. Belly fat is made by the same process, your body burning off calories. Stress can make it harder to lose weight because it can increase your cortisol levels (which is a stress hormone). And high cortisol levels can lead to belly fat.

One main contributor to belly fat: SEXUALEXERMS. And yes, exercise is one of the key factors in shedding those unwanted pounds. However, there are many other factors involved in working on All of Them at the Same Time and losing belly fat with this approach can leave your eyeballs falling out of your skull, roll around the floor like a cat and get your tail up as your new best friend.

You see, your fat cells contain both fat and glucose. They use these two nutrients as their fuel. When you exercise, the extra glucose you burn creates extra fat cells while the extra fat cells help your muscle cells absorb the glucose. This is how stress and diet interact and it's what causes people to be fat.

So, the key to losing weight and avoiding the risk of getting diabetes is reducing your stress and improving your insulin resistance. Let me explain. In our genetically programmed obesity, we have two types of fat cells (fats) and two types of carbohydrates (glycogen) in our pancreas. Our body is not like a factory where they go in and replace old and worn-out cells. Our body keeps them fueled up for when they need to perform their job.

Now, when we have stress and our cortisol and/or adrenaline is released in excess, this causes the fat cells to grow even more than they were before. The problem is, we never have enough extra glucose (cortisol) to power our fat burning engine. If we ever ran out of the fuel (cortisol), our bodies would just use our stored fat (glycogen) until we replenished the glucose. This is when we would develop weight problems. In fact, studies show that people who have high stress levels tend to have higher amounts of cortisol and a higher percentage of those who have higher stress levels have higher cortisol levels.

When you have higher stress levels, the more your brain reacts to what you are feeling by releasing additional stress chemicals called neuropeptides. Some of these neuropeptides cause you to want to eat sugar. Sugar has your bodies natural need for energy. When you have too much glucose, your brain needs to have an extra supply of it to provide you with enough energy.

Now, as you can see, the main reason why you have more belly fat in the first place has a lot to do with your diet. The less stress you have the less your body will be demanding of you to burn its own fuel (cortisol). In addition, the more you eat, the more your body will crave more sugar and the more your blood sugar levels will be disrupted. This all contributes to more stress management problems.

For example, this morning I read an article about chronic stress and insulin resistance. Chronic stress and cortisol over time lead to an imbalance in liver function. The imbalance causes your liver to release more cortisol into your bloodstream. In addition, chronic stress and cortisol increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. By choosing healthier foods like vegetables, fruit, nuts, and whole grains, you can reduce your risk for developing type 2 diabetes and stress.