Does Stress Cause Belly Fat?

If you want to control and reduce belly fat and stress it may be the toughest lifestyle change of all. Little did we know that just having too many bad days, weeks and years takes its toll on our bodies. Strangely enough, your body will "protect" itself by storing fat on your waistline.

As a form of protecting you from dangerous animals and surviving long periods of hard times with little food, belly fat and stress are related as your body will automatically pack it on right around your gut. If you can reduce your stress levels it will help to reduce belly fat.

Stress And Stomach Fat: How Are They Connected?

In modern times we're not afraid of animals jumping out at us or dealing with periodic famine but the hormones cortisol and adrenaline still surge into your bloodstream each time you experience any amount of stress. It can be from anything like swerving to miss a cat, getting the news that someone close to you is very ill or that you're being laid off.

It's these two main hormones that serve to prepare you to run from danger and at the same time tell your body to preserve energy, in the form of stored fat, in the event of long term famine. This is all well and good if you were really in a survival mode with little access to food. But that's not the case in modern society where, more often than not, we want to reduce belly fat and not store it.

While our bodies remain in stressful situations, it still stores fat despite the fact that we have easy access to food. You will have stress in your life, much of which you can do nothing about. Or can you?

You may have the tendency to pack fat on around the waistline. So while you may be a good person and you don't eat lots of junk calories, you can still have problems trying to reduce belly fat covering your midsection.

Reduce Belly Fat Naturally.

How do you fight belly fat and stress? There are various ways to lower your stress levels or at least reduce its side effects on you. The first thing you can do is take a good look at your life and determine which factors can cause stressful situations for you.

This isn't easy because we think we're the key element in so many things. But the simple fact is that we have too many things on the go at once. Learn to eliminate what you can and delegate responsibilities and tasks to lighten your load.

Next, learn to let go. Find a hobby or form of relaxation that allows you to forget the troubles for just a time. Take up yoga or try a new dance class where you get really stomping and twirling.

Adrenaline must be "burned up" through some means of moderate exercise. So the next time you get a surge of adrenaline due to some stress, make it a point to take a walk up several flights of stairs or do 10 minutes of jumping jacks. This will go a long way to ridding the body of the hormone that tells your body to store fat.