When one consumes alcohol, the liver starts burning it instead of fat, and this leads to excess pudge around the waistline.
Yet, visceral fat poses serious health risks, accumulating around critical internal organs, like the pancreas, liver, and intestines, and thus increases the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Type 2 diabetes.
According to Harvard Health Publishing:
“One reason excess visceral fat is so harmful could be its location near the portal vein, which carries blood from the intestinal area to the liver. Substances released by visceral fat, including free fatty acids, enter the portal vein and travel to the liver, where they can influence the production of blood lipids. Visceral fat is directly linked with higher total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance means that your body’s muscle and liver cells don’t respond adequately to normal levels of insulin, the pancreatic hormone that carries glucose into the body’s cells. Glucose levels in the blood rise, heightening the risk for diabetes. “
Fortunately, you can eliminate belly fat by following these tips:
Strengthen Your Core
You need to exercise and build up your core muscles, as this will help you finally lose the beer belly.
Assess Your Alcohol Consumption
Drinking alcohol boosts the natural hormone production, fat mobilization, and improves insulin sensitivity. Yet, studies have shown that moderate beer drinkers have a 42 % lower risk of heart disease compared to non-drinkers, so it would be wise to control your habit.
To reduce or slow down drinking, it would be helpful to record the drinks you have every day.
Get Active
Physical activity accelerates metabolism and supports the fat burning process, so a 10-minute cardio daily will strengthen the stomach muscles and burn the fat accumulates in the abdominal area.
Fix Your Diet
You can eliminate belly fat by increasing the consumption of nutritious foods such as veggies, lean protein, fresh fruits, and healthy fats. Intermittent fasting is beneficial when trying to lose fat in the belly area. It will help you to control cravings and lower the overall intake of calories.
Beer is rich in calories and carbohydrates, so if you reduce the intake of carbs and increase the protein intake, you will speed up fat loss and your metabolism.
Note that stress contributes to the accumulation of fat in the belly area, and also causes hormonal imbalances, especially involving cortisol, which stimulates the storage of fat around these problematic areas. Don’t panic, this will take time, but after some time, you will notice the changes occurring in your body.
