Why are you getting belly fat?
Channel: BioBalance Healthcast
Date: 2021-07-26

See all the Healthcasts at https://www.biobalancehealth.com/healthcast-blog/
The most frequent question asked by my patients, both women and men, the first time they see me is, “Why is my belly getting bigger? I never had a big belly before, and I can’t get rid of it!”. My answer is individualized to the patient, but there is one change that occurs as the first trigger of aging and ends in a distended and obese abdomen—Low free testosterone, and high estrone blood levels.   The cause is loss of the production of the “all important hormone” testosterone, from the ovary or testes, and the result is a slower metabolism and gain of fat in the abdomen. 

But why do we crave a thin waistline?  Having a thin waist is indicative of a youthful body, and youth in general.  It is one of the biggest reasons that we crave, desire, even demand that our bodies revert to a thinner waist to bring back our youth! The aging process takes the thin waist away and deposits fat where we once had a narrow middle!

When we turn 40-50, our body changes from a highly metabolic body that was fertile, into a lower, more efficient metabolism that is slowed even more by carbohydrates in the diet. We can bring our metabolism back to normal by one medical intervention and a healthy lifestyle specifically created for postmenopausal women and aging men. No one escapes the aging process and the deposition of belly fat, without replacing testosterone in a non-oral and bio-identical manner. I explain this to every patient and since I know each of my patient’s medical histories, family histories, medications, diet and exercise programs, I can target my advice to their individual need. At my office at BioBalance Health® we make a plan to get rid of that belly fat for each of our patients and we measure the about of belly fat that they have by measuring their body composition with an INBODY® machine.

What IS Belly Fat, Really?
Let me specify exactly what belly fat really is made of: 
A portion of an individual’s belly fat is from the accumulation of fat inside the abdomen around the intestines, in an organ called the omentum.  This belly form of belly fat is called Visceral fat, which increases a person’s risk of diabetes and heart disease, and takes a long time to dissolve this form of belly fat, requiring low carb diet and daily aerobic exercise. This is usually a long-term project (a year). 

The second type of belly fat, subcutaneous fat, is deposited between your skin and your muscles, most often seen in women who have had pregnancies that stretched their skin and caused the collection of fat under their skin. To lose this type of fat, this fat requires specific abdominal exercises, and or radio wave treatment to melt fat and tighten skin, and sometimes surgery to remove excess skin and liposuction of fat deposits. Generally, this type of fat is the first to respond and decrease when testosterone pellets and lifestyle changes are instituted.

The last type of” belly fat” is really intestinal distention from gas collection in the intestines or from constipation, food allergies or intolerances,  diseases like intermittent bowel obstruction after abdominal surgery, or a variety of GI diseases that must be diagnosed and treated by a board certified gastroenterologist. Many people confuse abdominal distention with one of the first two types of fat accumulation.  Bowel distension (or abdominal distention sometimes called bloating is generally a GI mobility problem, or an anatomic defect like an abdominal hernia and may require probiotics, fiber, diet changes like avoiding gluten and milk products, getting a low thyroid treated, treating diabetes or prediabetes, or repair of abdominal wall abnormalities surgically. Abdominal distention can also come from very lax abdominal muscles which require dedicated exercises if they are not severe, and sometimes require surgery if they are greatly lengthened and lax.

What causes belly fat to occur as we age?  First it is low testosterone that lowers the metabolism in everyone as they age so you burn fewer calories. Second it is lack of exercise and poor diet. You just get more “efficient” and save your calories and make fat out of them instead of energy. Last is the metabolic changes of aging including Insulin resistance or Pre-diabetes that occur at or right before menopause, and the production of more estrone which is made in belly fat from conversion of testosterone into estrone, which both lowers free testosterone levels and makes more belly fat to make more estrone.  A viscous cycle ensues!