Beer is a popular beverage among people that are liked by and prefered by most. It is prepared after a procedure known as fermentation.
Whenever people go for ‘light drinking’, they often opt for beer as compared to other alcohol-based beverages.
What causes a beer belly?
It’s not necessarily beer but too many calories that can turn your trim waistline into a belly that protrudes over your pants. Any kind of calories — whether from alcohol, sugary beverages, or oversized portions of food — can increase belly fat. However, alcohol does seem to have a particular association with fat in the midsection.
“In general, alcohol intake is associated with bigger waists, because when you drink alcohol, the liver burns alcohol instead of fat,” says Michael Jensen, MD, an endocrine expert and obesity researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Why does fat accumulate in the belly?
When you take in more calories than you burn, the excess calories are stored as fat. Where your body stores that fat is determined in part by your age, sex, and hormones.
Boys and girls start out with similar fat storage patterns, but puberty changes that. Women have more subcutaneous fat (the kind under the skin) than men, so those extra fat calories tend to be deposited in their arms, thighs, and buttocks, as well as their bellies. Because men have less subcutaneous fat, they store more in their bellies.
What’s wrong with a beer belly?
Belly fat in the midsection does more than reduce your chances of winning the swimsuit competition. It’s linked to a variety of health problems, from type 2 diabetes to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Carrying extra pounds in your thighs or hips is less risky than carrying them in the abdominal region. Further, subcutaneous fat that you can grab around your waist and on your thighs, hips, and buttocks is not as dangerous as the visceral fat that’s found deep within the abdominal cavity surrounding your organs.
Losing your belly
There is no magical way to tackle belly fat other than the tried-and-true method of cutting calories and getting more physical activity. Monounsaturated fats and so-called “belly fat” diets won’t trim your belly faster than any healthy, low-calorie diet, Jensen says.
Because of the link between alcohol calories and belly fat, drinking less alcohol is a good place to start. Avoid binge drinking, which puts you at risk for liver damage and other serious health problems. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend limiting alcohol to one serving per day for women and two for men.
Can exercise eliminate your beer belly?
Doing sit-ups, crunches, or other abdominal exercises will strengthen your core muscles and help you hold in your belly fat, but won’t eliminate it. The only way to lose belly fat (or any kind of fat) is to lose weight.
Aerobic exercises like running, swimming, cycling, and tennis are some of the best to help reduce body fat. But “any kind of exercise will help you keep the weight off more effectively than diet alone,” Jensen says.
The good news is that when you start losing weight, you tend to lose it in the midsection first. “Visceral fat is more metabolically active and can be broken down quicker than other fat,” Jensen says, “so it is usually the first to go, especially when you have a lot to lose.”
