Even though you're training your abdominal muscles, you still have a little roll of fat around your hips? And your bottom remains flat? Is the fat distribution in your body to blame. Can we influence this?
The bad news first: One of the biggest factors that determines where fat is in the Body stored is gender – and it is difficult to change. Men tend to store fat on Belly to store, while women tend to gain weight on their thighs, buttocks and hips.
Hormones play an important role in fat distribution
“With a view to birth and raising children, it is useful to have energy reserves in these areas, as pregnancy and breastfeeding require a lot of energy,” says nutritionist Dr. Adam Collins in a report in SF magazine: “Hormonal differences affect our ability to store fat.”
According to some research results, it could particularly affect the female Sex hormone Estrogen, which plays a major role in shaping body fat distribution. This means that premenopausal women – who have higher estrogen levels – are less likely to store fat in the abdomen and near their vital organs.
Therefore, they are initially protected from the negative effects of obesity such as high blood pressureheart disease and diabetes, while men are more likely to develop these diseases earlier in life. According to the menopause However, women's estrogen levels drop. These hormonal changes cause them to develop a typically male pattern of fat deposition.
What role do stress and sleep play?
Stress could be another factor. There is a theory that stress can cause women to gain more weight around the middle of their bodies – some studies actually show a link between increased cortisol levels and weight around the stomach.
“But it could be more complicated than just cortisol,” says Fredrik Karpe, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Oxford. “There are also other reasons why people with stress do not gain the same amount of weight everywhere.”
Recent studies have suggested that poor sleep may play a role in body fat composition. The results suggest that the worse you sleep, the more likely you are to have belly fat. sleep.
Subcutaneous vs. visceral fat: what are the differences?
There are two main types of body fat: subcutaneous and visceral. Subcutaneous fat can be found directly under your skinwhere it is stored for the most part in a healthy way. Visceral fat is also known as “deep” fat, which tends to be more unhealthy. This type of fat can accumulate in the abdomen and surrounds your organs, especially the stomach, liver and ColonThis can lead to problems such as insulin resistance – a risk factor for diabetes.
Your body fat distribution is largely determined by your gender, ethnicity and genetics. But you can control it a little by Total fat content reduce. After all, your overall body weight is the biggest factor in determining how much fat your body stores. Ultimately, we can't change our genetic predispositions.