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Fat sticks to you due to your habits, and workout says least about the matter!
By Himanny Arora
If you think being a dancer or an active workout person, cardio and lower belly fat is least of your concerns, then you're wrong!
Here are a few circumstances that add fat to your belly (over the lower abdomen) and varied places regardless of your profession or physical load.
And to undo, or prevent it from happening you just start undoing the following:
1. Irregular Food and Sleep Habits - Are you an artist with prolonged training sessions? Or a professional with extra shifts? Or an all-nighter party-freak? Well, congratulations, your inconsistent habits are making you closer to the obese list!
Our body has two basic phenomenas - metabolism and circadian rhythm, that affect your weight. Metabolism refers to the net breakdown and synthesis of substances, and circadian rhythm refers to our body clock, and, they are both related. So if you upset one, you upset the other. For instance, if you take 2 average calorie meals with a long gap like that of 6 hours, you are adding more to your body than a person eating 3 heavy meals consistently. And to answer your next thought, how much you burn matters least when your rhythm and metabolism is upset.
Not to forget, irregular sleeping habits are totally ruining your body's natural clock.
2. Heavy Evening Meals - While in some cultures it is believed that having heavy evening meals are good for health, science proves otherwise. So the basic logic behind heavy evening meals adding to your weight especially lower belly is that it cannot get metabolized completely. The food once intaken takes 5 to 6 hours for the digestion and 22 hours to leave the body. Now try recalling how many times you have had cheesy pasta after extra long training sessions and slept afterwards? Yeah, so many times!
3. Stress - Now if you don't believe me with the saying that stress does cause weight gain, especially in your lower belly, you can simply Google it. I will keep it very simple and illustrative. We often tend to eat sugary food and/or chocolates when we are sad. Ever thought why is it? And how much is it adding to your body?
Stressed conditions make our glands release stress hormone cortisol and inturn insulin. While cortisol treats our stress, insulin treats our taste buds with the cravings of sugary substances. So next time you find yourself stressed, meditate rather.
4. Bacteria - No one ever thought that an organism as little as this can increase our belly fat as much as anything. You all must have heard of Yakult, the probiotic drink? Yes, it contains good bacteria and good bacteria keep your gut healthy while bad bacteria leave no chance to add to your tummy. 'How' is a very long question to answer but since you know this now, you can work on it better.
5. Inadequate Fiber - Let's go back to grade 8 when we studied about nutrients. There was a very underrated component called fibre. Fibre, also known as roughage, helps with cleaning the gut by taking out along with it all the food that sticks in your gut.
Oh, when was the last time anyone had a proper salad for a meal or with a meal?
6. Excess Water Intake - While some myths say that drinking more and more water will keep you healthy, science has already proven it otherwise. Excess water can cause puffiness/ swelling in the abdomen and legs by accumulating in the cells. Remember the night when you slept slim and trim and got up all bloated in the abdomen?
So no matter what your profession is, and your burning hours certainly matter least if you have an unhealthy lifestyle. Start keeping it together even if it is only for 3 of 6 that you can follow. Something is always better than nothing.