Each phase of our life brings new challenges. For women over fifty, one of the challenges can best be described as stubborn fat around the abdominal area. With age as our metabolism naturally slows, a more sedentary lifestyle, and increased hormonal changes due to menopause, we tend to store more fat around the waist. The good news is that this fat can be reduced, but it takes a combination of lifestyle changes and dedication to keep it from coming back.
Unfortunately, muscle mass gradually decreases with age, so the percentage of your total body weight as fat increases. With less muscle mass, the rate at which your body uses calories, or your metabolism, slows. Fat builds up when you take in more calories than you burn. If you consume the same number of calories as you did when you were younger and more active, and you lead a more sedentary lifestyle, you will store fat. Factors that affect how much energy you burn are genetic and hormonal. Women experiencing menopause will produce more estrogen, as cells are alerted to the fact that the ovaries are not producing enough. As a result, cells store fat to produce more estrogen. When estrogen is produced, your metabolism slows down and fat cells are not converted into energy. You are saved from stubborn belly fat.
Belly fat just below the skin is subcutaneous fat. This is of cosmetic concern, but does not necessarily pose health problems. Visceral fat is deep inside the abdomen, which surrounds the body’s internal organs. Excessive amounts of visceral fat produce hormones that can raise blood pressure, alter cholesterol levels, and possibly make the body insulin resistant, resulting in type 2 diabetes. Excessive amounts of any type of fat will increase estrogen levels, and can lead to heart disease, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. You can’t change the aging process, or genetic factors, but there are things you can do to get rid of belly fat, and keep it off after you turn fifty.
Because your metabolism slows with age, you don’t need as many calories per day, so cut back on your calorie intake. The United States Department of Agriculture specifies that people over fifty only need 1600–2000 calories per day. If you start with a good breakfast, and eat fewer calories more often, it seems to help. When you eat more often, you trick your body by not giving your hormones a chance to signal to your brain that you’re hungry. Plus, eating smaller meals more often keeps your blood sugar levels stable. You’ll get the same number of calories at different intervals. A crash diet will cause your body to store more fat for later, as your metabolism will slow down as your body signals that you need nutrition, so it will defeat the purpose. A better diet includes eating more whole grains, plant-based foods, fruits and vegetables, and reducing foods high in cholesterol, saturated fat and sugar. If you eliminate any of these foods, your body will be signaled and will store more fat, so don’t stop eating.
Physical activity is important if you want to get rid of your belly fat. Strength training, also known as resistance training, is one of the best ways to get rid of fat in a certain area of the body. Strength training promotes muscle building, and increased muscle mass increases your body’s metabolism, in turn burning calories or fat. Resistance training exercises can be isotonic, where the body part is moving against a force, or isometric, where the body part is stationary against the force of gravity. Isotonic exercise would be lifting a weight repeatedly, and isometric involves positioning your body in a certain way to stretch the muscles, but does not involve any physical movement. These types of strength training exercises will tone muscles and increase bone mass. Resistance bands, exercise machines, weight machines, exercise bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers, or stair climbers, and swimming machines may be used.
Exercise that is at least moderately intense, or enough to make you sweat, and high enough to get your heart and breathing rates up, is essential to shredding those fat cells. It is recommended that you exercise for thirty minutes at least five times a week to promote an overall healthy body. To burn those fat cells, you’ll need to stretch to sixty minutes a day. In addition to reducing calories, the extra exercise will increase your metabolism, and burn fat, reducing fat cells. For women, it is suggested that a waist measurement of 35 inches or more may indicate an unhealthy concentration of abdominal fat.
Stress can be another contributing factor to stubborn fat. If you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol, and excessive amounts can make your body insulin resistant. You can try meditation, yoga, deep breathing or just switch it off. Many of us eat when we are under stress. You must have a stress outlet that doesn’t involve food. If you’re not used to doing this, remind yourself that in stressful situations you will turn to a form of exercise. Dieting can be stressful in itself. If you focus too much on what you can’t eat, you may end up craving more of it. Change your mind by exercising, or doing stress-management exercises.
Stubborn, belly fat weight loss will require more diligent effort and long-term lifestyle changes. The most important thing to start with is to visit your doctor. It is important to rule out another cause of the fat, such as thyroid disease. Your doctor will be able to suggest a training regimen that you can stick with, making sure it’s safe for you to do these exercises. Remember that you need fewer calories due to a slower metabolism. Change your diet, but don’t cut out food groups. Avoid alcoholic beverages that are high in calories and low in nutritional value. Losing that dreaded belly fat after fifty requires dedication, lifestyle changes, education and above all, patience. Life after fifty is just another journey, and you can lose the bulge if you commit to the effort.
Source by David Grisaffi
