I’m sure you have heard the saying ‘Abs are made in the kitchen’, and this is 100% correct! No amount of sit-ups reduces belly fat. Sit-ups and other abdominal exercises strengthen your abdominal muscles which helps support your lower back, so they are important. However, they will not help you drop belly fat. Only nutrition can do that.

There are few factors that impact the storage of belly fat:

• Excessive sugar consumption
• Excessive consumption of processed food
• Insufficient fresh food
• Lack of hydration
• Inflammation
• Stress
• Digestive issues

Let’s tackle each one separately.

Excessive sugar consumption:

When I say excessive levels of sugar, I am talking about all simple sugars, as well as simple carbohydrates that break down into glucose once consumed. People automatically think sugar in coffee or tea, chocolate and lollies. But it also include bread, of any sort, wraps, tortillas, taco shells, pastas, pastries, biscuits, chips, flour of any sort, bread crumbs, penko crumbs, basically most things found in a pantry.

When you eat your pancreas releases insulin to transport any glucose to your cells for energy. If the cells are full, insulin takes the glucose to your liver to be metabolised as fat for storage, back up fuel. Glucose needs to remain under 5g in the blood at any given time, otherwise it can be fatal. If you are eating these foods regularly, your glucose stores will not require replenishment as often as you consume carbohydrates, so you will be storing a lot of metabolised fat from these foods.

This fat is stored around the abdominal organs as visceral fat, the dangerous fat that increases risk of heart attack and cancer. It is also stored as subcutaneous fat, the fat that sits above the muscle and under the skin. Visceral fat can only be broken down with good nutrition. Subcutaneous fat is broken down with exercise.

To reduce belly fat that results from overconsumption of simple carbohydrates and therefore sugar, you need to reduce your intake of these foods to no more than once or twice a week, and take up exercise, if you don’t already do it.

Excessive consumption of processed food

Processed food such as pizzas, burgers, pastries, pies, pre-cooked oven baked crumbed chicken or fish that come as frozen meals, etc. contain trans fats, as well as the simple carbohydrates mentioned above. Trans fats are warped fat molecules that increase risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of your artery walls), increase blood pressure, increase risk of mortality, increase obesity related illnesses, and increase belly fat.

As well as increasing the amount of stored visceral fat around the abdominal organs, trans fats increase inflammation, which further increases the size of the belly. If your belly is hard, there is a lot of inflammation and toxicity in it. The only way to reduce this, is to stop consumption of trans fat processed food.

Insufficient fresh food

Fresh food, vegetables and monounsaturated fats such as unheated olive oil, seeds and nuts, help break down visceral fat.

Consumption of these foods also keep you satiated, reducing the over consumption of sugar food and processed food.

Fresh food and monounsaturated fats help eliminate toxins that are stored in fat cells, and reduce inflammation.

All of this in conjunction helps reduce your belly fat.

Lack of hydration

Water helps metabolise fat in the fat cells, helping the fat move from the cell into the blood stream, making it readily available as a fuel source for energy expenditure. So when you are active, when you exercise you can break that fat down.

If you are not consuming adequate levels of water, a minimum of 8 glass a day for someone in the healthy weight range (more if you are a larger person whether it be larger due to excess fat or high muscle mass), then you cannot metabolise fat sufficiently. This means that fat is trapped in the fat cell and cannot be used as energy, nor can you remove the toxins from within the fat cell. This increases inflammation in the cells, making them large and hard.

To help reduce your belly fat therefore, you need adequate intake of water.

Inflammation

Inflammation can be caused by:

• Overconsumption of sugar and processed foods
• Bad digestion
• Stress
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Medication
• Eating food you are allergic or intolerant to
• Illness
• Injuries

When the body is inflamed it uses its energy to try to reduce inflammation. All other functions take last priority. That includes fat metabolism and removal of toxins.

So once again, it means that the body will store more fat around the belly as it will not be focusing on breaking that fat down. This fat accumulates in the cells along with toxins, making the cells large and hard. This is also very dangerous to your health.

You need to manage all areas that contribute to inflammation to try and keep it as low as possible at all times.

Stress

Stress works very similar to inflammation with some added extras. As well as all the issues already covered under ‘Inflammation’, stress causes an excess amount of cortisol secretion (our stress hormone). This can warp the production of all other hormones, puts stress on the thyroid slowing it down, and ads pressure on the adrenal glands, that control all our other hormones.

The thyroid has many functions, regulates your metabolism. So if the thyroid reduces in function, it reduces your metabolism, increasing fat storage. The adrenal glands are responsible for controlling or hormone functions. When these are stressed they have a domino effect onto the thyroid, slowing its function.

Stress in your body is not always work or school related, financial etc. It can be caused by all the things that also cause inflammation; where there is inflammation there is stress.

So improving your nutrition, regulating your hydration, and managing all the causes of stress and inflammation, can help reduce your belly fat.

Digestive Issues

Digestive issues are caused by a vast array of things including, but not limited to:

• Eating too much sugar
• Eating too much processed food
• Stress
• Inflammation
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Eating food you are allergic or intolerant to
• Excessive bad bacteria
• Insufficient good gut flora
• Poor live function
• Excess fat around the body
• Low levels of activity
• Insufficient hydration
• Alcohol
• Drugs and/or medication
• Cigarettes
• And much more

When your body is struggling to digest, it will not distribute adequate levels of nutrients throughout the body, it reduces the body’s ability to excrete toxins, reduces metabolic function and increases fat storage around the belly due to storage of visceral fat.

The only way to help yourself if this is your issue, is to get on top of whatever it is that is causing your digestive issues. That does not mean taking medication to mask the symptoms. The side effects (aka belly fat) will not go away by simply taking heart burn or reflux medication, as an example. You need to establish the root cause, and manage it properly.

As you can see, there are so many other factors you need to take into account before worrying about sit-ups. Simple things for immediate action:

• Stop eating processed food and high levels of sugar and simple carbohydrates food
• Avoid allergen or intolerance food
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat more fresh food
• Be active
• Manage your stress
• Identify and manage what is causing any inflammation and digestive issues
• Stay on top of nutrient deficiencies; supplement where necessary
• Avoid cigarettes, drugs and alcohol

• Coach Terri