All fat is not created equal and that’s one of the problems associated with weight loss statistics. Fat tends to accumulate on our bodies in two distinct patterns. Belly fat that creates an apple shaped body has a number of problems associated with it that make it worse than the pear shaped body that first puts fat on the hips and thighs.

Belly fat risks

If you’ve been waiting for one more reason to finally get rid of that excess belly fat, take note. Researchers in Germany have found that fat accumulated in the abdomen can be far more dangerous to your health than fat on other parts of the body.

Their study, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that excess weight around the abdomen nearly doubled a person’s risk of death from a variety of diseases

• Belly fat puts us at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes. Belly fat appears to boost inflammation. And we now know inflammation is linked to heart disease. Belly fat is linked to worse atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), which makes heart attacks more likely.
• Belly fat is linked to diabetes It appears that belly fat cells increase insulin resistance, which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes.
• Belly fat makes you hungrier. In a cruel turn of events, it appears that belly fat reproduces a hormone that stimulates appetite. The more we weigh, the hungrier we get.
• Belly fat increases breast cancer risksA study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that excess abdominal fat can affect breast cancer survival.
• Belly fat is linked to colon cancer. Both men and women who have larger waist lines experience an increased risk of colon cancer.

Other causes of belly fat gain

Unfortunately fat gain isn’t just food related. There are some surprising risk factors that we don’t normally associate with weight gain.

• A common industrial chemical, phthalates is linked to belly fat. Phthalates a common chemical found in everything from plastics to soaps, already has been connected to reproductive problems and now, for the first time, is linked to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance in adult males, according to a study by the University of Rochester Medical Center.
• Another factor that may trigger belly weight gain is depression. Older adults with symptoms of depression appear more likely to gain abdominal fat, but not overall fat. Dutch researchers found that out by studying women for five years.
• Stress, a condition that often comes with depression is another problem. Non-overweight women who are vulnerable to the effects of stress are more likely to have excess abdominal fat, and have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, a study conducted at Yale suggests. Cortisol is a know contributer to fat gain.
• Lack of sleep and weight gain.  Weight-loss experts have a novel prescription for people who want to shed pounds: Get some sleep. A very large study has found a surprisingly strong link between the amount of shut-eye people get and their risk of becoming obese. Those who averaged five hours of sleep had 50 percent greater risk, and those who got six hours had 23 percent more. Those who got less than four hours of sleep a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who got the recommended seven to nine hours of rest.
• Belly fat is linked to dementia. A study published in the journal Neurology, suggests that having a larger belly in middle age may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Losing the belly

Liposuction is not the answer to better health. According to a 2004 study conducted by Washington University, it was found that surgical removal of abdominal fat did not provide any metabolic benefits. Removing fat with a vacuum may ease strain on the bones and muscles. It may help with self-esteem. It won’t, unfortunately, help with the other problems associated with belly fat.

Exercise

We’ve all heard that exercise is vital in losing weight. But just as all fats are not created equal, different forms of exercise have unequal effects in helping us lose weight.

All exercise burns calories but some forms increase appetite, some reduce it. Aerobic exercise is the key. It helps suppress appetite. Weight lifting actually makes us hungrier. All those sit ups, crunches and other abdominal exercises will give more muscle tone to the belly but don’t actually decrease belly fat. That’s not to say that non-aerobic exercise is not beneficial, just that aerobic exercise is the one most helpful for losing belly fat.

Hypnosis and guided imagery

Evidence suggests that the use of hypnosis and guided imagery, which are really the same thing, has a positive effect in weight loss. On a somewhat related note, regular meditation has been proven to decrease cortisol levels in the blood. Cortisol, a stress hormone has been associated with weight gain.

Sleep

Recent studies have shown that people who get less than 7-9 hour of sleep a night are prone to gain weight. Get a good night’s sleep consistently if you want to lose weight.

Belly busting foods

Of course, we all know that the total number of calories we eat each day determines how fit or fat we are. However, all foods are not created equal when it comes to weight loss. Generally, processed foods contribute more to weight gain than unprocessed ones adding both “junk sugars” and “junk fats” to our diet, which make us fatter. There are foods that have the reverse effect.

Eating whole grains can decrease belly fat. In addition to the direct weight loss gains, the whole grain diet significantly decreased the evidence of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a major health risk associated with belly fat.

According to a study that appeared in Diabetes Care, a journal published by the American Diabetes Association, a diet rich in monounsaturated fats (MUFA) may help reduce abdominalfat better than a carbohydrate rich diet.

MUFAs can be found in:

• Olives and olive oil
• Canola oil
• Nuts and nut oils (peanut, walnut)
• Seeds and seed oils (sesame, flaxseed)
• Grape seed oil
• Soybean oil
• Avocados

Avoid trans-fats. Just as monounsaturated fats are good for us, it appears that trans-fats are bad. “Diets rich in trans fat cause a redistribution of fat tissue into the abdomen and lead to a higher body weight even when the total dietary calories are controlled,” said Lawrence L. Rudel, Ph.D., professor of pathology and biochemistry and head of the Lipid Sciences Research Program. According to the FDA, trans fat is found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the majority of trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine by adding hydrogen.

While we’re on the subject of fats, it appears that omega-3 oils not only provide help against heart disease, they have a belly busting impact. Omega-3 oils are found in a number of foods including: walnuts, some fruits and vegetables, and coldwater fish such as herring, mackerel, sturgeon, and anchovies. Fish or krill oil supplements offer an easy way to get sufficient omega-3s in the diet, though vegetarians can get most of the benefits by consuming flax seeds and flax seed oil.

Apples and pears may help us lose weight. Researchers from the State University of Rio de Janeiro studying the impact of fruit intake on weight loss found that overweight women who ate just 300 grams of apples or pears – that’s the equivalent of three small fruits a day – lost more weight on a low-calorie diet than women who didn’t add fruit to their diet.

Cut down on fructose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been added to more and more foods as a flavor enhancer. Not only is fructose a source of empty calories, it actually promotes weight gain.

The ultimate irony is that high fructose corn syrup is often used to replace fats in diet foods. Take a quick trip to the grocery and look through the low fat foods and see for yourself. The Accidental Hedonist has compiled an overwhelming list of foods, by brand that contain HFCS. 

The fructose if fruits isn’t normally a problem. The health benefits of the vitamins, minerals and fiber in fruit far outweighs the fructose down side. The problem is HFCS as a food additive. HFCS along with hydrogenated fats unfortunately make up a major percentage of calories in fast and packaged foods. Empty-calories foods generally refer to foods with high calories but low nutritional values. The best strategy is to replace these foods with nutrient-dense foods. It really shouldn’t be a surprise that the closer foods are to their natural state the healthier they are.

DHEA may help reduce belly fat. DHEA is a serotonin precursor and is sold as a food supplement in the U.S.. Since depression can be a cause of belly weight gain, it may be that DHEA’s anti-depressant action helps with weight loss.

There are a couple of pieces of good news about belly fat.

First it’s the first to go. Fat around the thighs is always harder to lose.

Resourceful and resilient women are less pear-shaped. In what seems a strange coincidence, a study has found pear shapes are rarely found among women who have to rely on their own resources, such as going out to work or to search for food, to support themselves and their families. It seems that having a body that isn’t “perfect” in the conventional sense may have substantial benefits for women.

For example, in Greece, Portugal and Japan, where women are less economically independent, men show a higher preference for a thin waist than their counterparts in Britain and Denmark, where there is more equality among the sexes. And in some non-Western societies where food is scarce and women shoulder the responsibility for finding it, men actually prefer women with a higher waist to hip ratio.

Things to avoid

• Severe diets. Losing weight too quickly has major side effects. That’s the reason why most people who diet eventually gain back their weight. It is possible to lose weight and keep it off but to increase the odds, losing weight slowly is good. Quick weight loss may be appealing but it almost never sticks. Rapid weight loss increases appetite, which makes those with even the greatest will power binge. The study I’ve cited here is very technical, but basically when we lose weight quickly the body produces hormones that increase an almost uncontrollable desire to eat more.
• Fad diets. that have us eat one or two foods are not sustainable. I love grapefruit but eating it every day for the rest of my life isn’t appealing. An eating program that consists of a variety of foods is the one most likely to work long term.
• Exercising too much. Yes, exercise, especially aerobic exercise, is a cornerstone of the vast majority of successful weight loss programs. It is very easy for an out of shape person to injure him or her self., and if we are overweight the chances are high that we are also out of shape. A sensible and sustainable plan, doing an exercise we actually enjoy stands the best chance of working.
• Non-prescription Diet pills. DHEA supplements have a modest positive effect on long term weight loss. Other than DHEA, there are no safe and effective pills or potions for losing weight. That’s the conclusion reached by researchers from three British universities.. According to the Mayo Clinic, Ephedra containing pills are the major exception but those have serious health risks. They can cause dangerous side effects, including heart attacks, seizures, strokes and sudden death. Ephedra
• Fat blockers. These are prescription medicines that block fat absorption. They can be helpful when used as part of a comprehensive weight loss program but by themselves help little or not at all. When combined with diet and exercise, anti-obesity drugs can help someone lose about 5 to 10 percent more weight, research suggests. “The pills we currently have don’t seem to be terribly effective for long-term weight loss,” says registered dietitian Anne Fletcher of Mankato, Minn. “When people go off the pills, many put weight back on.”

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