Muffin tops aren’t just for middle aged women anymore! Men and women of all ages are spilling over their pants in increasing numbers. This phenomenon, known as central adiposity happens when a number of factors collide in your body:
1. Increasingly stressful lifestyles lead to increased cortisol level. Excessive cortisol signals your body to protect its most prized possessions… its organs! So you pad up around the middle to save your self, from your stress.
2. Lack of activity. Trouble exercising when you commute 2 hours/day and work 60 hour weeks? You are not alone. Research shows that we are spending more time in the car and at our desks than outside.
3. Dysbiosis. Adding to the problem and visual appearance of muffin top is the widespread problem of dysbiosis—or an imbalance in the gut bacteria . Many people feel chronically bloated and constipated.
4. Blood sugar roller coaster. Diets high in refined grains and sugar lead to insulin resistance and central weight gain.
5. Alcohol consumption. Alcohol causes an alteration in liver function, can cause insulin resistance and causes food “disinhibition” (meaning that you eat without restraint).
Muffin tops aren’t just visually unappealing. They represent a serious health risk. When your waist becomes bigger than your hips, so does your risk for diabetes, cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease and stroke. If your waist to hip ratio exceeds 0.8 as a woman or 1.0 as a man, you need to focus on melting your muffin top.
Ready to get serious about your expanding waistline? Try these strategies for at least 30 days:
1. Stop eating wheat. Yes wheat is a glycemic grain that contributes to insulin resistance and causes belly fat.
2. Take chromium picolinate twice daily to help regulate blood sugar and burn fat.
3. Reduce alcohol intake to a maximum of 4 drinks/week.
4. Do 30 minutes of exercise every day to boost metabolism and burn body fat.
5. Make a stress management effort. As little as 5 or 10 minutes per day of deep breathing and progressive relaxation will rebalance your cortisol.
6. Get 7-8.5 hours of sleep every night. Good quality rest is PROVEN to help with weight loss and fat loss.
7. Be patient. While you weren’t paying attention, your belly fat developed a mind of its own and started controlling your hormones.