[goinforthegold]

I know that refined carbs and sugar in particular is bad for adding belly fat, and not just fat but bloating and just overall ugly mid sections but what I don't know is WHY. What exactly is it about the way our bodies handle those foods that makes it so hard on the belly?

[yogachick30]

Good morning! I hope that others will correct me if I'm wrong about this but this is my take on your question... Refind sugar and highly processed grains (e.g white flour) don't take any time at all for our system to digest. When a food is quickly processed by the body our insulin shoots up very high to break everything down and store it for later (stores in the belly, thighs, etc).

Now lets say you eats some plain rolled oats (not the instant kind), it's take the digestive system a lot longer to break down the grain so therefore the insulin doesn't shoot up as high and blood levels remain fairly stable.

I hope this makes sense and that it is correct info. I'm sure that others will post their thoughts and experiences. Take care and have a wonderful day!

[JayEll]

There isn't a simple answer to this question, unfortunately. It has to do with the insulin reaction. When we eat carbohydrates, especially simple sugar, the pancreas releases the hormone insulin. Insulin transports the sugar out of the blood and into the cells. Unfortunately, high concentrations of glucose (the sugar in question) can be toxic to cells--so with chronic overeating of carbohydrates, the insulin receptors on the cells' surfaces decrease, lest they be flooded with glucose. (This is way oversimplified! Some researchers think that the insulin receptors drop for other reasons, such as immune reactions.)

Having fewer receptors means a person is insulin resistant--their blood sugar stays high even though they are making enough insulin. The cells that need insulin to take in glucose but don't have enough receptors can then be "starving in the midst of plenty."

For reasons that I'm not able to explain, insulin resistance is correlated with fat gain around the midsection. It's not clear whether this is a cause-and-effect relationship, or which causes which. Some think that people who tend to gain fat around the midsection are genetically prone to insulin resistance. Others think that long-term overeating of carbohydrates causes the insulin resistance and body changes, regardless of genetics.

That's not really an answer, although I've tried to give some details. It's just something that's been observed, and the reasons are complex.

Increasing fitness, namely with regular exercise, lessens insulin resistance because muscle cells that are regularly exercised start producing more receptors and taking in more glucose from the blood.

Jay

[Justwant2Bhealthy]

That's a great question; one that I have been wondering about for ages myself. I was just doing research on the net last night about this very subject becuz that runs in our family too. I have a belly that makes me look like I'm pregnant; we try to joke about it, but I'm tired of telling people, "No, I'm not ... it's just fat!"

I have lost several inches off my stomach, but I have lost all over my body more. I do dozens of female crunchies each day (like I learned at a fitness center years ago); but one site said we only need to do 3 sets of 12 daily.

The AB sites claim it the high fat and refined wheat & sugary foods that are causing the belly fat in many people today. We don't eat a lot of baked goods, only low-fat Bran muffins; whole grains breads & cereals, etc. I'm still gonna tweek my eating plan from their ideas though, to see if it helps.

I was surprised that they recommended to eat pizza often; they must mean a thin whole wheat crust; and about one slice with salad (with no high-fat processed meats which were on their occasional list).

I read somewhere that some researchers think belly fat is a different kind of fat that some people produce becuz it runs in their families. We have cut down our meat portions to very lean lately, and we measure the amounts now; I hope this might help; but the ab sites say to increase the lean protein portions (eat them six times a day).

Sometimes all this info gets very confusing to me. I really would like to know the answer to this problem. I find it odd that my DH eats the same KINDS of foods as me (only more of them) and he doesn't have a ponch, and he's only 130 lbs. I know that his metabolism is faster than mine being a man, and he does a lot of walking and more physical stuff than me.

Maybe there's a clue there; maybe we all need to up our physical activities overall; and increase our muscle mass at the same time ??? I do hand weights every other day, and I'm looking into some other ideas (like getting an ERGOMETER, cuz I have bad legs) that I can use in between my walks.

Just some thoughts .... ROSEBUD

[QueenLucia]

YOu all seem to know so much! Good thoughts, Everyone!

[JayEll]

Justwant2Bhealthy, I don't trust any site that says eat pizza often! That just makes no sense to me. They may list that just to give some hope to the pizza addicts among us. I'm sure they mean it to be eaten only in small amounts.

Jay

[CousinRockingChair]

I don't know, I just thought refined carbs and sugars made you generally fatter everywhere, because of the insulin thing, makes you hungrier, etc.

I think belly fat is genetic..probably isn't different from butt fat or upper arm fat, its just WHERE you store it!?

emily
xxx