Causes and Prevention of Pot bellies.

BEER does NOT cause pot bellies, experts claim after a study.

One esteemed reader of this website asked me to discuss why men become pregnant. At first, I thought she was talking about men who change their gender (sex). Then she went further and clarified that she was referring to ‘pot belly’ or what many refer to as ‘beer belly’. Oh, I came to my senses. I am now speculating that she is eying a man with ‘pot belly’ and she is worried what caused it and if there is a possibility of eliminating it or preventing one from developing.

 

They said heavy drinkers DO put on weight — but it tends to be spread over their bodies.
Pot bellies, for generations associated with ale-swillers propping up the bar, may have more to do with genetics.
The study also discovered that the men most likely to put on weight were those who drunk the most — or, surprisingly, those who did not drink at all.
Moderate drinkers fared best in the research by German and Swedish experts.
They studied 20,000 people for more than eight years and published findings in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

I have good news. In a series of articles, starting with this one, I will discuss what causes pot belly in men and how to prevent it.

By the way, have you ever talked to a man with a ‘potbelly’? did you notice how some move their right hand along the curve of the belly as they talk. Most likely, he was attracting your attention to his belly since he thought that the belly is a sign of power or achievement.

However, the truth is that, a  pot belly is a sign that things are not going very well health wise.

Why does men develop ‘pot belly’ or ‘beer belly’.

Pot belly  or ‘beer belly effect’ is caused by excess calories. These calories lead to accumulation of fat  in the abdomen, hence the abdomen protrudes excessively leading to a pot belly.  The calories can be derived from many foods but mostly from high calories foods such as fat and beer.

Why are ‘beer bellies’ common in men than in women
Pot bellies are prevalent in men because of how men store fat. Men tend to gain weight in the abdomen while when tend to accumulate their fat in thighs and pelvic area. Therefore men develops un-attractive pot belly or beer belly while women have attractive rear.

Reasons why men allow fat to accumulate and develop Pot Belly

There are several reasons that cause men to allow fat to accumulate in their abdomen which leads to pot belly. Some of these factors are social while others are eating habits and lifestyles.

1. Social status.
Some cultures highly regard men with protruding bellies. Western cultures loathe beer bellies, but some less developed countries still cherish pot bellies. They view these men as wealthy, comfortable, powerful and satisfied in life. This encourages younger men to develop bellies to receive such praise and recognition in the society.

2. Age
Generally as men grow older they develop potbellies. Can you remember your slim high school sweetheart, how does he look now.  Pot belly does not occur to all men with age. It is only common occurrence to men who reduce the level of activity and exercising with age.

The level of exercising with age is also influenced by culture and social standings. In some communities, it is a taboo for men of a certain age to be seen running like children. They are required to walk in manner that suggests that they are mature and respectable.

3. Marital Status
Generally, unmarried men are skinny compared to married men. This is attributed to the fact that unmarried men, do not take time to cook and eat well. Most bachelors survive on the minimum food possible. After marriage, they have access to food and a lot of it. This can propel excessive eating habits leading to development of potbellies.

4. Wealthy
This is a controversial point. Most men as they accumulate wealthy, their lifestyle changes. They no longer walk long distances, instead, they drive. Their jobs change from moving from office to office to just sitting on a desk the whole day.

Computer era has also a lot to be blamed for this. All files are handled digitally, therefore there is limited movements.

Others still think that, if they are wealthy, they should look ‘fat’. In other words, wealth is synonymous with fat people in some communities.

5. Beer
There is a popular belief that pot bellies in men are caused by drinking beer. This is why pot belly is referred to as ‘beer belly’. However, lets evaluate the facts, there are people who do not drink but develop pot belly. At the same time, there are people who are daily drinkers yet are extremely skinny. Therefore we should not generalise beer as a bad evil that impregnates men.

There are several reasons why beer is blamed for pot bellies in men.

1. The first reason is that beer is high in calories. 1 gram of alcohol contains approximately 7 Calories. This is the second highest number of calories compared to other macronutrients in food. 1 gram of fat contains 9 Calories, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 Calories and 1 gram of protein contains 4 Calories. Calories in beer are referred to as empty calories. This implies that most of these calories end up converted into fat.

A 500 ml beer (approximately 1 pint) which is 5 % v/v alcohol contains approximately 170 Calories. This means that consuming 5 beer bottles of 500 ml gives a total of 850 Calories. These are only derived from beer. When you add the calories from the other foods then you exceed the daily recommended calorie intake.

2. Beer consumption leads to hunger, this can cause a person to eat additional unhealthy foods which are also high in calories such as barbecue meat (commonly referred to as choma), sausages and other fatty foods. Actually, many beer drinkers say that fatty foods reduces the level of drunkenness.

3. Beer also leads to dropping of blood sugars level. This leads to lethargy. Lethargy leads to reduced activity which implies that less calories are burned. The burning of less  calories increases the likely hood of accumulation of fat and hence pot belly.

I love questions. Why not leave them in comments section.

This is the second part on the series of beer belly aka pot belly discussing causes of  abdomen obesity. If you missed the first part, read it here.

3. Social status.

Culturally, those spotting beer bellies were considered as wealthy, comfortable, powerful, satisfied in life and generally doing well.

Such beliefs discouraged many from taking corrective measures such as physical exercise that helps cut beer belly.

4. Age

Reduced calorie needs, reduced physical activity, wasting of bones and decline of hormonal level in the body are responsible for gaining weight with age.

As the hormone levels decline in men and women with age, they’re more likely to store fat around the middle section of the body.

This is particularly true with women after age of 40 years, due to changes in hormone levels; fat is deposited in the abdomen. However, menopausal women who take hormone replacement supplements experience not as much of a shift toward deposition of fat in the belly compared to women who do not.

5.  Stress

Persistence social, work, family and financial strains create stress. Approximately 40% of those who experience stress result to increased calorie intake, while 40% reduce their calorie intake. The other 20% normally do not change eating habits during stressful situation.

Stress triggers stress-response network in the brain that induces secretion of glucocorticoids, hormones which increases desire for food, and secretion of insulin, which promotes food intake and obesity.

Pleasurable feeding (mainly of sweet and/or fatty foods and beer) then suppresses activity in the stress–response network temporarily abating effects of stress.

This can lead to reinforcing a habit of eating high calorie foods and drinking beer as a quick remedy to stress.

Such objectionable stress countering eating habits can lead to abdomen obesity.

6. Wealth

An increase in wealth is accompanied by sedentary lifestyle and intake of high calorie foods.

These two (sedentary lifestyle and high calorie foods) are key contributor to abdomen obesity.

Can the ‘beer belly’ be prevented?

The Beer belly can be prevented as well as managed. Here are some of the best ways to prevent as well as manage beer belly.

Eat right

As a rule of thumb, eat less calories than you burn. This is the single most important  step towards cutting belly fat.

Reducing calorie intake involves the obvious; eating smaller portions of food, cutting fried foods, reducing sugary beverages, processed carbohydrates especially all white starchy products, fatty meat and fatty dairy products.

Avoid excessive drinking

If it is not possible to cut on beer completely, reducing the amount consumed is a great option. Switching to either light beers (less than 100 calories per drink) or wine can also be a good alternative, but,  limit the amount of wine consumed as well.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting alcohol to one serving per day for women and two for men.

Burn Calories

Burning calories requires a physically active lifestyle involving regular exercises such as running, brisk walking, aerobics and other various physical exercises.

Two other considerations that must accompany a regular exercise regime are: healthy foods and calorie-controlled diet.

Which foods can flatten the Belly ?

Whole grains have been shown to generally reduce weight gain.

A recent study carried out by Professor Penny Kris-Etherton and her team from Pennsylvania State University which was published 2008 showed that participants who ate whole grains lost more weight from the abdominal area than another group that ate the same diet, but with all refined grains.

Bottom Line

It is evidently clear that belly fat can lead to severe health consequences such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases.

Without doubt, this demands investing in behavior that eliminates the belly fat.

The proven way to cut the belly fat is controlling the calories. The second thing is increasing food considered to be healthier and rich in nutrients and fibre such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low fat foods, fish and poultry products. The third and the last but most important is to increase physical activity. Physical activities are not only good for cutting belly fat but also for overall well-being.

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