If you've ever wondered why some people have a beer belly and others don't, well new research has revealed it's all to do with our biology.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you've ever wondered why some people have a beer belly, others don't. Well, new research has revealed it's all to do with our biology and perhaps a whole lot of beer. A new study found men are more likely to develop fat around the midsection thanks to hormones that make it to the stomach, stick to the stomach like glue, but there is some good news, meaning that you're not doomed to have that dad bod forever to explain a bit more about this. Sunrise GP Dr. G. Mansford joins us now. Jeannie, good to see you here in the studio. What is it about the fat around the stomach that makes it so hard to lose, number one? Look, so what we're talking about is not fat you can pinch, which is what we call subcutaneous or under the skin fat, which actually doesn't do anything great, terrible for your health. It doesn't look great, but it's not terrible. In terms of the fat around your organs, and they tend to all be concentrated in your belly, they're a problem because they're metabolically active and they're linked to things like diabetes and heart disease, high blood pressure, but even some cancers as well as we're keen to actually shred it. What we know is because there's so much concentrated around that belly area, it can feel like it's coming off at a glacial pace, even though you can lose centimetres from your arms and your face and it seems much quicker. But some bloke surely just can't blame biology, it is about the amount of beer. And when you have a few too many beers, you might do a Maca's run next to a couple of eggs or chips as well. So it is about the calories. Some people genetically just tend to put much more around their waist, but as you said, there's also a big hormonal factor, so we know that the hormone estrogen, which is in young women, will tend to put it around your bottom, around your thighs, less around the belly, women who go through menopause and lose their estrogen are really unhappy, all of a sudden it goes around their belly, and for men it's always around that midsection that makes them not look the best. And once you put it on, around there, that's hard to get rid of. Yeah, it can feel like that because it's really concentrated because there are so many organs that are sitting around pushing out your muscle layer and actually making it feel like it's going off really slowly. Solutions, I mean, there seems to be a pillar of vaccine for everything these days and injection at some time, is it just a case of watching your diet? Be careful of what you put in there. A lot of exercise, a lot about your diet. Interestingly, we do have data from people with diabetes that a low carbohydrate diet is the best for you losing that specific peroviseral fat, don't have the same data for the rest of us who don't have diabetes yet. And for the bloke, have a look on the tap and the pub, there are low carb beers. Or alcohol-free even. There you go. All right, Jeannie, thanks for being here. (air whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]