You know, one of the things I hear most from women in their 40’s and 50’s is that they have started to get a bit of a belly “pooch”, where once was a flat, toned tummy. Usually, they follow this up with something like, “I just don’t get it…I mean, I’m eating less, and working out even more than I used to.”
This is what I like to a call “a clue”.
To understand why the bulging belly phenomena can happen, you must first understand a little about hormones. We typically think of hormones as bad, especially when we talk about them in context of aging, menopause, etc.
But it’s not that hormones are inherently bad; it’s more about which hormones interact with each other and how they interact with each other, that can cause issues.
The hormones we specifically think of when it comes to women and fat loss are insulin, cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and catecholamines. Don’t worry if you don’t know what all of those are – the main thing to understand is that when some hormones “play” or hang out with others, it can lead to a pretty nasty hormonal soup….leading to, you guessed it, increased belly fat storage.
So where does stress come into play? Before getting into that, I need to clarify what I mean by stress. I’m not talking just about stress that is obvious like job stress, financial stress, etc. I’m talking about anything that puts internal stress on the body – things like lack of sleep, overtraining, etc. It is totally possible to not feel unhappy or outwardly stressed, but have a bigtime stress response going on internally. Excess stress = excess cortisol.
Add to this the hormone insulin, and the hormonal soup gets even more interesting. Cortisol added to insulin is a bad combination, and the most problematic for belly fat.
Anyway, as women age, typically, estrogen decreases and testosterone increases. When insulin and cortisol are added to this mix, the result can be increased belly fat. Chronic stress in women raises testosterone, lowers estrogen and negatively impacts insulin – this, in effect, can cause increased hunger & cravings and loss of muscle, along with the belly pooch.
So before you get more stressed out by reading the above, here are some tips to reverse the trend:
- Get enough sleep: this should be top priority. Make an effort to get at least 8 hours per night. If you’re like me, and have a hard time winding down, try a relaxing bath, reading and drinking chamomile or Sleepytime tea. Also, try to keep your bedroom as dark as possible. Lights from electronics, nightlights, etc., can disrupt the body’s natural sleep pattern.
- Build in stress-relieving restorative workouts to your routine. These include things like leisure walks in nature, massage, gentle yoga, gardening, spending time with pets, etc. Whatever blisses you out. These types of workouts help to lower cortisol and help to re-balance estrogen and testosterone.
- Work in 2 to 3 days of heavy weight training per week. This helps to use testosterone for muscle building, not belly fat storage.
- Don’t go to extremes with diet. You will hear so many different schools of thought on this, but you have to find what works for you. For some women, low carb works best. With others, it’s Intermittent Fasting. It really depends on the individual as to what works. What I’ve found that works well for a lot of my clients is eating three “meals” per day and two snacks. Each meal and snack consists of quality protein, green veggies and a bit of clean starch. Again, it’s not a “one size fits all” deal though.
- Keep long, endurance type cardio to a minimum. I’m not going to tell you to stop completely, especially if this type of exercise brings you joy. The thing to remember here is the stress response this type of exercise can cause. If you’re going to do it, try for one or two days per week max.
- Certain food combinations are fat-storing nightmares. Probably the worst is the combination of fat and starch. Add stress to the mix, and it’s even worse. So, general rule of thumb is if you’re going to eat fat, that’s ok…just eat it with green, fibrous veggies and not with starchy carbs like potatoes, rice, etc. Likewise, if you’re going to drink alcohol, it is best to eat lean protein and fibrous veggies and shy away from the fatty foods.
- Eating less and exercising more is not your friend. Finding a healthy balance of each is key.
Peaches – lowering her cortisol
In short, keeping stress in check, whether it’s physical or mental stress, helps keep hormones in balance and the belly fat at bay.
So, get out there and enjoy that leisurely walk today!! It does a body good :-). And while you’re at it, consider joining our 12 Week Healthy Aging Lifestyle Program. Among other things, we’ll be teaching you how to keep hormones in balance and reduce the stressors in your life. Everything kicks off April 13, 2015!
xoxo,
Tara
Reference: Metabolic Effect – they are the AUTHORITY on all things hormones and fat loss. Check them out!