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.
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What causes a 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.
- But is it really beer that causes a “beer belly”? Not all beer drinkers have them – some teetotalers sport large ones.
- 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.
“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. He cautions that these numbers are simply guidelines, and recommends keeping your waist size below these numbers. 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.
- 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.
- Beer lovers should opt for light beers with 100 calorie or less, and limit the number they drink per day.
- 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.
Can you drink beer and not get a belly?
How to Get Rid of Your Beer Belly – The best way to get rid of a beer belly is through diet and exercise. If you’re drinking heavily, you should also think about limiting your alcohol intake or giving it up completely. Try to avoid binge drinking, or having a lot of alcohol over one or two days.
Unfortunately, there’s not one perfect diet for reducing belly fat. However, diets that contain low amounts of processed meats, sugary drinks and refined grain products have been linked with smaller waistlines ( 40, 41 ). So, if you’re trying to lose weight and improve your health, switch to a diet mostly based on whole, unprocessed foods and cut back on added sugar ( 42, 43, 44 ).
Exercise is also a really effective way for both men and women to lose belly fat. Both cardio and high-intensity exercise can help ( 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51 ). Additionally, exercise has lots of amazing health benefits on top of weight loss, which make it one of the best things you can do to improve your health.
What age do men get beer belly?
The beer belly — it’s a man’s curse. It starts in our 30s, and grows like an uncontrollable tumor for the next 30 years with every frosty cool one. But the beer belly is more than just an unsightly problem that forces us to go up in pant sizes. It can be a sign of hidden killers lurking inside.
Recent studies have shown that men are much more likely to gain weight around the waist than women. Weight gain in this specific area (called visceral fat) is correlated with severe health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, high triglycerides, sleep apnea and even cancer.
9 Foods to Avoid to Lose Belly Fat FASTER
A recently published Harvard article showed that men with increased abdominal girth are at an increased risk for osteoporosis.
Is a beer belly hard or soft?
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 unhealthy is a beer belly?
Q: What do we know about the potential harms associated with excess belly fat? – A: Beer bellies are linked with increased risk for a variety of health problems including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome and higher mortality.
Is a beer belly permanent?
– Targeted fat loss, especially around the midsection, sounds good in theory, but it may not be the most realistic. Exercises like crunches may help firm up muscles, but there’s mixed research about how well specific exercises can burn fat just in the belly or elsewhere.
Can you drink beer and still be fit?
Beer and fitness? Can it be? I was once asked an interesting question concerning drinking beer and exercising. It seems that a former Navy radioman had developed quite a gut since retiring and was curious about whether he should give up his beer to lose weight.
- Not only did the gentleman enjoy drinking 2-4 beers daily, he also had quit exercising.
- More than 90 million Americans enjoy drinking beer.
- Drinking moderately has been proven by many doctors, as well as the New England Journal of Medicine, to be a healthy component of longevity.
- In fact, moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, can reduce the effects of high cholesterol, heart disease, some forms of cancer and even impotence.
Anything done in excess is naturally unhealthy. “Moderation” is defined by most doctors as 1-2 beers a day. The average can of beer has more than 100 calories. Drinking one beer is equivalent to eating a chocolate chip cookie. Drinking four is equal to eating a Big Mac.
In order to lose weight, you have to burn off these extra calories as well as the other calories that you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even the lightest of beers has the empty calories of alcohol, which is the cause of poor health if done in excess and without a regular exercise routine. Unfortunately, too many Americans live under one of the worst stereotypes placed on a human being – the beer belly or, as I call it, the inactivity belly.
The “inactivity” belly is caused by excess calories in your diet and lack of activity to burn them. The solution to lose your beer belly is as simple as calories in must be less than calories out (or expended through exercise). Calories in If you can add exercise into your schedule for 20-30 minutes a day, your daily consumption of alcohol (1-2 beers) will not have any additional impact on your gut.
- To lose your beer belly, you have to watch your food and beverage intake, drink 2-4 quarts of water a day and fit fitness into your world.
- There is no other healthy answer.
- The exercise and workout ideas below can get you started on your calorie-burning plan: Workout #1 This is a great full-body calorie burner: Repeat 3-5 times Walk, run or bike 5:00 Squats: 20 Push-ups: 10-20 Sit-ups or crunches: 20 Workout #2 Swimming and elliptical gliding (cross country skiing) burn the most calories per hour.
(This workout can burn up to 1,000 calories in one hour.) Swim 20-30 minutes nonstop Elliptical glide 20-30 minutes Read ” Burn More Calories ” for more information and tips. There is no reason why you cannot have “six-pack abs” and still drink a six-pack a week.
- Once again, excessive beer drinking is not recommended by anyone in the health industry.
- If you simply enjoy drinking beer and are serious about your health, moderation in drinking alcohol and eating foods high in calories, combined with habitual daily exercise, is your ticket to reaching your goals.
Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Visit his Fitness eBook store if you’re looking to start a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle.
Why am I fit but have belly fat?
Ask an expert how to get rid of belly fat, and you’ll probably get an answer along the lines of exercising consistently and fueling your body with quality foods. If you have been exercising and still have belly fat, you could be doing the wrong style training, your stress levels may be too high, or you may have an endocrine disorder like polycystic ovary syndrome,
Is belly fat the last to go?
The battle of the bulge – One reason belly fat is so hard to lose is that it’s considered an “active fat.” Unlike some fatty tissue that simply sits “dormant,” belly fat releases hormones that can have an impact on your health — and your ability to lose weight, especially in the waist and abdomen areas.
In fact, hormones and belly fat are so intertwined that some that the fat acts like an “extra organ” or gland. As a result, losing belly fat often takes hard work, especially if you’re in your 40s or older. That’s because your hormones and your belly fat affect each other, and as your hormone levels change during middle age, fat around your midsection tends to accumulate faster than it does in other areas.
Other than age, other factors also contribute to stubborn belly fat.
Is beer belly genetic?
Beer belly and genetics Experts claim that “beer does not cause pot bellies”, The Sun reported. The newspaper said the researchers had found that heavy drinkers do put on weight, but it is spread all over their body. It said that the pot belly, long thought to be associated with drinking, may be due more to genetics.
This cohort study looked at beer consumption, weight and body measurements in almost 20,000 people on two occasions over an average of six years. It found that increased beer consumption over time was linked with increased waist circumference, particularly for men. However, once a person’s overall weight was taken into account, the significance of these associations disappeared.
This suggests that any weight gain from beer is distributed all over the body, rather than being concentrated around the waist. Although this study does not support the notion of a ‘beer belly’ as such, it demonstrates that the more beer you drink, the more weight you gain.
Is jiggly fat easier to lose?
Soft belly fat – It is subcutaneous fat, which is stored just underneath the skin’s surface. Subcutaneous fat is soft and jiggles easily. Soft fat can be pinched between the fingers. Everyone has subcutaneous belly fat and is normally harmless. Poor diet and lack of exercise are the main reasons for a build-up of subcutaneous fat.
Why is my fat so jiggly?
Subcutaneous belly fat – Subcutaneous fat, or subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), is the fat that’s found under your skin ( 2 ). Subcutaneous fat is soft, and it’s the fat you see “jiggling” on your belly. In general, women have greater amounts of subcutaneous fat than men ( 3 ).
Unlike the fat that’s found deeper in the abdominal cavity, subcutaneous fat isn’t as strongly linked to increased disease risk ( 3 ). However, having too much body fat, in general, including total belly fat, may increase your risk of developing some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers ( 1, 4, 5, 6 ).
Contrarily, maintaining healthy levels of belly fat and overall body fat may help reduce your risk of developing a chronic disease.
How long does it take to lose a beer belly?
How Long Will It Take to Lose My Beer Belly? – Ultimately, your timeline for losing a beer belly will depend on your starting weight, and the adjustments you make. For example, let’s say your goal is to lose 10 pounds. If you cut out 3,500 extra calories (or one pound) each week, you’ll be on track to reach your goal in two and a half months.
Can you be skinny with a beer belly?
Summary – If you’re a skinny guy with belly fat, your main problem is nutrient partitioning—you’re storing fat instead of building muscle when you gain weight, and you’re losing muscle instead of burning fat when you lose weight. Over time, that can make people skinny-fat. There are five key ways to fix skinny-fatness:
- Lift weights to stimulate muscle growth. Hypertrophy training (aka bodybuilding) is best, but any type of weight training will do. Even bodyweight training or resistance bands can work in a pinch. Nothing improves nutrient partitioning by nearly as much as lifting weights, making this the obvious place to start.
- Eat enough protein to build muscle at full speed. Muscle growth is stimulated by your workouts, at which point you need to make sure you’re eating enough protein to build that muscle out of.
- Get enough good sleep. By improving your sleep, you can improve your workout performance, anabolic hormone production, rate of muscle growth, and rate of fat loss. It also helps dramatically with nutrient partitioning.
- Try to lead a generally healthy lifestyle. There are a million ways to improve your health, and most of them will have at least a minor impact on your body composition. By leading a lifestyle that’s healthy overall, you can combine many of these minor factors to the point where the can produce a noticeable impact. Start by focusing on exercising regularly, going on a daily walk outside, eating a diet made up mostly of whole foods, managing chronic stress, and keeping your alcohol consumption under control.
- Eat the right amount of food. Once you’re in the midst of doing the four interventions above, the best way to improve your results is to manipulate your weight. Eating more calories and slowly gaining weight (bulking) will dramatically improve your rate of muscle growth. Eating fewer calories and losing weight (cutting) will radically improve your ability to burn fat.
There are tons of other strategies to help you burn fat and build muscle, and many of them work. Most of the strategies that work fold into one of five interventions above. For instance, intermittent fasting makes it easier for some people to eat fewer calories—part of intervention #5.
There are strategies that fall outside of these five interventions, and they may help in a minor way, just don’t let yourself be distracted by them. If something isn’t working, look to the Big Five Interventions, They are by far the most powerful tools we have at our disposal. Think on improving your workout program, double-check your protein intake, make sure you’re eating real food, cut back on IPAs, or adjust your calorie intake.
That is probably where the problem hides. As always, if you want a customizable workout program (and full guide) that builds these principles in, check out our Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program, We also have our Bony to Beastly (men’s) program and Bony to Bombshell (women’s) program for skinny and skinny-fat beginners. If you liked this article, you’ll love our full programs. Shane Duquette is the co-founder and creative lead of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and has a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He’s personally gained 65 pounds at 11% body fat and has ten years of experience helping over 10,000 skinny people bulk up. Marco Walker-Ng is the co-founder and strength coach of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and is a certified trainer (PTS) with a Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences (BHSc) from the University of Ottawa. His specialty is helping people build muscle to improve their strength and general health, with clients including college, professional, and Olympic athletes.
How many beers does it take to get 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 long does it take for beer belly to go away?
Alcohol-Related Weight Gain – In individuals with alcohol-related weight gain, the bloating length will depend on their calorie intake, activity, and fitness level. Overall, if they are physically active or their digestive system works well, the bloating can disappear in less than a week.
In cases of alcoholic gastritis (inflammation in the stomach lining), bloating can disappear in under 2 weeks. In chronic cases, it can last well over a month to even years, depending on how complex the health condition is, including whether the patient plans to stop drinking. However, if the bloating is caused by alcohol-induced hepatitis, it may take a month for it to subside.
If you don’t think you can handle the alcohol withdrawal all by yourself, try the best 90-day recovery center for chronic alcohol abusers in Texas. You will get all the support you need for a healthy recovery. Tip: Consult with a doctor if your alcohol-induced bloating doesn’t subside in a week after your last drink,