How To Get Rid Of A Beer Gut?

Try high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) – HIIE involves all-out efforts in rapid sets of sprints or other exercises, followed by brief rests, and then more short but intense exercise. A study in the Journal of Obesity suggests that HIIE is more effective at burning fat and accelerating weight loss than many other forms of exercise.

Can you get rid of beer belly?

The Truth About Beer and Your Belly What really causes that potbelly, and how can you get rid of it? Have years of too many beers morphed your six-pack abs into a keg? If you have a “beer belly,” you are not alone. It seems beer drinkers across the globe have a tendency to grow bellies, especially as they get older, and especially if they are men.

1. But is it really beer that causes a “beer belly”? Not all beer drinkers have them – some teetotalers sport large ones.
2. So what really causes men, and some women, to develop the infamous paunch? It’s not necessarily beer but too many calories that can turn your trim waistline into a belly that protrudes over your pants.

Any kind of calories – whether from alcohol, sugary beverages, or oversized portions of food – can increase belly fat. However, alcohol does seem to have a particular association with fat in the midsection. “In general, alcohol intake is associated with bigger waists, because when you drink alcohol, the burns alcohol instead of fat,” says Michael Jensen, MD, an endocrine expert and obesity researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Beer also gets the blame because alcohol calories are so easy to overdo. A typical beer has 150 calories – and if you down several in one sitting, you can end up with serious calorie overload. And don’t forget calories from the foods you wash down with those beers. Alcohol can increase your appetite. Further, when you’re drinking beer at a bar or party, the food on hand is often fattening fare like pizza, wings, and other fried foods.

When you take in more calories than you burn, the excess calories are stored as fat. Where your body stores that fat is determined in part by your age, sex, and hormones. Boys and girls start out with similar fat storage patterns, but puberty changes that.

• Women have more subcutaneous fat (the kind under the ) than men, so those extra fat calories tend to be deposited in their arms, thighs, and buttocks, as well as their bellies.
• Because men have less subcutaneous fat, they store more in their bellies.
• Beer bellies tend to be more prominent in older people because as you get older, your calorie needs go down, you often become less active, and gaining weight gets easier.

As hormone levels decline in men and women as they age, they’re more likely to store fat around the middle. Menopausal women who take tend to have less of a shift toward more belly fat than those who do not. Studies suggest that smokers may also deposit more fat in their bellies, Jensen says.

Belly fat in the midsection does more than reduce your chances of winning the swimsuit competition. It’s linked to a variety of health problems, from to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Carrying extra pounds in your thighs or hips is less risky than carrying them in the abdominal region.

Further, subcutaneous fat that you can grab around your waist and on your thighs, hips, and buttocks is not as dangerous as the visceral fat that’s found deep within the abdominal cavity surrounding your organs. Visceral fat within the abdominal wall is frequently measured by waist circumference.

1. When waist circumference exceeds 35 inches for women and 40 for men, it is associated with an increased risk of, metabolic syndrome, and overall mortality,” Jensen says.
2. He cautions that these numbers are simply guidelines, and recommends keeping your waist size below these numbers.
3. There is no magical way to tackle belly fat other than the tried-and-true method of cutting calories and getting more physical activity.

Monounsaturated fats and so-called “belly fat” diets won’t trim your belly faster than any healthy, low-calorie diet, Jensen says. Because of the link between alcohol calories and belly fat, drinking less alcohol is a good place to start. Avoid binge drinking, which puts you at risk for damage and other serious health problems.

1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’ s 2010 D ietary Guidelines recommend limiting alcohol to one serving per day for women and two for men.
2. Beer lovers should opt for light beers with 100 calorie or less, and limit the number they drink per day.
3. Another option is to drink alcohol only on weekends, and to alternate drinks with low-calorie, non-alcohol beverages.

Don’t forget to have a healthy meal before or with your drinks to help you resist the temptation of high-calorie bar food. Doing sit-ups, crunches, or other will strengthen your core muscles and help you hold in your belly fat, but won’t eliminate it.

The only way to lose belly fat (or any kind of fat) is to lose weight. Aerobic exercises like running,, cycling, and tennis are some of the best to help reduce body fat. But “any kind of will help you keep the weight off more effectively than diet alone,” Jensen says. The good news is that when you start losing weight, you tend to lose it in the midsection first.

“Visceral fat is more metabolically active and can be broken down quicker than other fat,” Jensen says, “so it is usually the first to go, especially when you have a lot to lose.” Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, is director of for WebMD. Her opinions and conclusions are her own.

What causes a beer gut?

As men get older, their six-pack abs may gradually merge into a round keg. The large stomach many men develop with age has earned the title beer belly, beer gut and brew belly due to its shape and men’s tendency to get too many of their calories from alcohol.

• While these nicknames may be humorous, excess belly fat can have serious negative consequences on men’s health if not addressed properly.
• We’ll explain all you need to know about what causes a protruding abdomen, why men are more likely to develop a rounder midsection, the health risks of too much belly fat and how to burn excess stomach fat.

Learn more about how men can lose belly fat to become leaner and healthier overall. Despite the name “beer belly,” beer is not the sole cause of abdominal fat buildup — it’s usually a combination of unhealthy habits. From a poor diet and excess calories to a lack of exercise and hormonal changes, there are many variables that affect stomach size. Though it’s not always the culprit, alcohol can also affect fat storage.

Am I getting a beer belly?

Beer belly – Harvard Health Q. I am a healthy, active 39-year-old guy. I enjoy a beer with dinner most nights, and a six-pack most weekends. Over the past year or two, I’ve had to let my belt out, and now I’m letting out my pants. So here’s my question: is beer really responsible for my “beer belly”? A.

Whether it’s called a beer belly, a spare tire, the apple shape, or the middle-age spread, abdominal obesity is the shape of risk. Abdominal obesity is a health hazard, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, erectile dysfunction, and other woes. Risk begins to mount at a waist size above 37 inches for men, and a measurement above 40 inches would put you in the danger zone.

For women, the corresponding waist sizes are 31 and 35 inches, respectively. Despite the name, beer is not specifically responsible for the beer belly. Research from the beer-loving Czech Republic tells the tale. In a study of nearly 2,000 adults, beer consumption was not related to girth.

If it’s not beer, what is to blame? The culprit is calories; if you take in more calories with food and drink than you burn up with exercise, you’ll store the excess energy in fat cells. And unfortunately for men, their abdominal fat cells seem to enlarge more readily than the abdominal fat cells in women.

But although beer is not a special problem, it can add to abdominal obesity by contributing calories. In round numbers, a standard 12-ounce beer contains about 150 calories; a light beer, about 110 calories. For comparison, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1-ounce shot of hard liquor provides about 100 calories.

Since all these beverages contain approximately the same amount of alcohol, you can see that regular beer does have extra calories — unless you count the mixers and olives. — Harvey B. Simon, M.D. Editor, Harvard Men’s Health Watch Explore the many factors to consider when deciding how much (if any) alcohol is safe for you.

Buy the Special Health Report, to get details of the dangers of alcohol misuse, from drunk driving to chronic, life-threatening health conditions. Image: © | Dreamstime.com As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.

Is beer gut healthy?

Aug.10, 2022 – Can a beer a day keep the doctor away? That’s what new research from Portugal suggests. In a pilot study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, men who drank one can of alcoholic or nonalcoholic lager a day for 4 weeks improved the diversity of their gut microbiome, the collection of microbes that live in the intestinal tract.

1. A more diverse gut microbiome is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and severe COVID,
2. So, by promoting bacterial diversity, beer may help prevent these outcomes, the study suggests.
3. The findings stand out amid increasing evidence that no level of alcohol, even in small or moderate amounts, is good for you.

This study indicates that a once-daily beer may benefit the gut microbiome regardless of its alcohol content, though nonalcoholic beer may still be the healthier choice. “There are a lot of myths regarding beer,” says study author Ana Faria, PhD, a clinical nutritionist at NOVA Medical School in Lisbon, Portugal.

“We think it is important to know the impact of moderate consumption of this beverage.” Giving New Meaning to ‘Beer Gut’ For the study, 22 healthy men ages 23 to 58 were randomly split into two groups. One group drank 11 ounces of nonalcoholic lager every day for 4 weeks, while the other drank lager with 5.2% alcohol (comparable to a Budweiser).

At the end of the 4 weeks, analyses of blood and fecal samples revealed an increase in more than 20 types of helpful bacteria in the men’s digestive tracts in both groups. Neither group saw significant changes in body weight, body fat, blood sugar, or LDL cholesterol, the researchers report.

1. Beer is rich in healthy compounds called polyphenols, which reduce inflammation and oxidative stress in the gut.
2. This creates a good place for beneficial bacteria to grow, Faria says.
3. Fermented foods have also been shown to boost gut microbiome diversity, she notes, meaning the microorganisms from beer’s fermentation may contribute as well.

Is Beer a Health Food Now? These findings both fit – and contradict – previous research exploring the impact of beer on the gut microbiome. One study, in the journal Alcohol in 2020, found that men and women ages 21 to 53 who drank 12 ounces of nonalcoholic beer a day for 30 days saw an increase in gut microbiome diversity.

But a separate group who drank beer with 4.9% alcohol did not see the same improvement. Why the different results between the two studies? It might come down to differences in the people who were studied, explains Khemlal Nirmalkar, PhD, an author on the 2020 study and a microbiologist at Arizona State University.

While the 2020 study included men and women in Mexico, the 2022 study involved only “healthy men” in Portugal. Gut microbiome changes can be influenced by gender and body mass index, other research has found. And the fact that people in the study lived in different communities may also have had an impact, the Portuguese researchers noted in a media statement.

Why is a beer belly so hard?

You have a buildup of hard fat – The first cause brings us to the root of your hard stomach: a high accumulation of visceral fat. Located in the spaces between organs in your abdominal cavity, visceral fat is packed in tightly, so there’s no jiggle room.

How many beers give you a beer belly?

Here’s a depiction of the average man from different countries. White boxer briefs are universal – This other site tells me losing 8.5 lbs leads to an inch off the waist, and although I’m going the other way I’ll assume the math remains. Convention says there is about 3500 calories in a pound, and we will go with that, even though weight loss/gain is probably not that simple,

So we need to figure out how much booze leads to 8.5 lbs. Time to booze! The typical pint of beer has 208 calories, so you need: (8.5 lbs. x 3500 Cal/lbs. ÷ 208 Cal/pint) = 143 pints to grow that beer belly. If you’re the stay at home type, a can of beer generally has around 150 calories, so you would need 198 cans.

For you light beer drinkers, shame on you. I’m not going to validate your poor choices with math.

How do I get rid of my beer belly if I’m skinny?

Can Supplements Help Skinny-Fat Guys? – There are a few supplements that can help people build muscle while losing fat. They aren’t nearly as important as lifting weights, eating enough protein, and getting enough sleep, but they can still help.

• Protein powders make it easier to eat more protein. Eating enough protein supports both muscle growth and fat loss.
• Creatine improves workout performance and increases our rate of muscle growth by around 33% ( research breakdown ). When more calories are being shuttled towards muscle growth, that leaves fewer to be stored as fat, helping with fat loss.
• Caffeine gives us more energy and makes exercising less painful. This can help us be more active and push ourselves harder, helping us build muscle and burn fat.
• Melatonin improves sleep. However, your body can produce it naturally. If you have a good sleep routine, you shouldn’t need it.

For more, we have a full article on supplements that help with body recomposition,

Does all alcohol give you a beer belly?

Do Other Types of Alcohol Cause Belly Fat? – The most likely way beer contributes to belly fat is through the excess calories it adds to your diet. Other types of alcohol like spirits and wine have fewer calories per standard drink than beer. This means they may be less likely to cause weight gain and belly fat.

Interestingly, some studies have linked drinking moderate amounts of wine with lower body weights ( 35 ). The reason for this is unclear, although it’s been suggested that wine drinkers have healthier, more balanced diets compared to beer and spirit drinkers ( 7, 36 ). What’s more, studies have shown that the amount of alcohol you consume and how frequently you consume it also matter when it comes to your waistline.

In fact, one of the most risky behaviors for developing a beer belly seems to be binge drinking. Studies have found that drinking more than four drinks at one time can increase your risk of belly fat, no matter what drink you choose ( 19, 37, 38, 39 ).