What really causes belly fat?

What really causes belly fat? What really causes belly fat comes down to three main factors: eating more calories than you burn, your hormones, and where your body decides to store fat. But the story gets more interesting when you look at the specific foods and habits that push your body to pack on belly fat faster than other types of fat.

Does eating fat make you store belly fat?

Not all fats are equal when it comes to your waistline. Your body handles different types of fat in completely different ways.

A 2014 study took 39 healthy adults and overfed them with an extra 750 calories per day from muffins for 7 weeks. Both groups ate the same total calories and gained the same total weight. But here’s what happened: the group eating muffins made with saturated fat (like butter and fatty meats) gained double the visceral belly fat compared to the group eating muffins made with polyunsaturated fat (from fish, nuts, and seeds).

The saturated fat group didn’t just gain more belly fat. They also built less muscle. Meanwhile, the polyunsaturated fat group gained less visceral fat and actually added a bit more lean mass.

Most health organizations recommend keeping saturated fat under 20 to 30 grams per day. That’s about the amount in this much butter. But many people eat way more than this without realizing it.

A ribeye steak dinner with butter and oil can pack almost 50 grams of fat, with nearly half being saturated. Add in your other meals and snacks, and you can easily hit over 50 grams of saturated fat in a day.

You don’t need to cut out these foods completely. Just balance them out with more unsaturated fats. Have fatty fish twice a week instead of ribeye every day. Choose leaner cuts of meat like top sirloin over ribeye. Grass-fed meats have slightly less saturated fat and more unsaturated fats, but they cost more and the difference is small.

Does sugar cause belly fat?

Sugar causes belly fat in a unique way because of how your body processes fructose.

In 2009, researchers wanted to find out if different types of sugar affect belly fat differently. They gave people drinks sweetened with either pure fructose or pure glucose for 10 weeks. Both groups consumed the exact same total calories.

After 10 weeks, only the fructose group significantly increased their visceral belly fat. The fructose group also developed worse insulin sensitivity, meaning their bodies now struggled more to handle carbs properly.

When you think fructose, you might think fruit. Fruit does contain fructose, but it also comes packed with fiber and water. This makes fruit incredibly hard to overeat in amounts that would affect your belly fat.

The real problem comes from table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. These hide in foods you might not expect. Bubble tea contains up to 50 grams of added sugar. Over 30% of Taiwanese people drink bubble tea at least once daily.

Cereal, granola, sweetened yogurt, juice, jam, and even ketchup all contain significant amounts of fructose from added sugars. Just one tablespoon of ketchup has about 4 grams of sugar.

Does protein help reduce belly fat?

Protein stands out from all other nutrients when it comes to fighting belly fat.

Your body burns calories just from digesting food. Protein burns 20 to 30% of its calories during digestion. Fat only burns 0 to 3%. Carbs burn 5 to 10%.

If you eat 100 calories from fat, your body nets 97 to 100 calories. Eat 100 calories from protein and your body only nets 70 to 80 calories. The rest gets burned just from processing the protein.

Studies show that going from a low protein diet to a high protein diet can raise your daily calorie burn by 4 to 5%. That might not sound like much, but it adds up to an extra pound of fat loss every month without any other changes.

In 2005, researchers took a group of people and only told them to double their protein intake. They didn’t tell them to eat less or change anything else. The group naturally started eating fewer calories on their own and lost over 10 pounds in 12 weeks. Almost all of it was pure fat.

The study didn’t measure visceral fat directly, but the large fat loss combined with protein’s appetite suppressing effects create perfect conditions for reducing belly fat.

To figure out your daily protein target, take your body weight in pounds and multiply by 0.8. For a 200 pound person, that’s 160 grams of protein per day. If you use kilograms, multiply by 1.8 instead.

Do certain foods help burn belly fat?

Two types of food can help your body burn more belly fat: foods high in fiber and resistant starch.

Researchers took two groups of people and fed them both 2,100 calories per day. One group ate mainly processed foods stripped of fiber and starches like chips, white bread, and juice. The other group ate mainly whole foods with lots of fiber and starches like potatoes, oats, and fruit.

Despite eating the exact same total calories, the whole food group excreted an extra 116 calories per day in their feces. The whole food diet was also far more filling.

Start small with fiber. Swap cereal for oats, white rice for potatoes or beans, and chips for popcorn. Make eating fruits and vegetables with every meal non-negotiable.

Does cardio burn belly fat?

Cardio burns calories but not as effectively as most people think.

When researchers had people burn 2,000 calories from cardio every week, the results were disappointing. On paper, this should lead to about 2 pounds of fat loss per month. In reality, the average fat loss was less than half of that. Some people didn’t lose any fat at all.

The problem is energy compensation. When you burn more calories through cardio, your body subconsciously moves around less the rest of the day. You might do a 500 calorie jog but then naturally move 150 calories less throughout your day. You still get a net caloric burn, but it’s offset.

On average, for every 100 calories you burn doing cardio, you only actually increase your daily energy burn by 72 calories because your body compensates by reducing other movement.

Does walking help reduce belly fat?

Walking works better than traditional cardio for burning belly fat.

Your body burns way more calories from all the things you do outside the gym. Simple activities like typing at a computer, walking your dog, or cooking dinner all burn calories. These non-workout activities are called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).

A highly active person can burn up to 2,000 more calories every day just from NEAT compared to someone who’s sedentary. That’s the same as what most people burn from their entire daily metabolism.

The problem with cardio is it can make you hungrier and cause you to move less the rest of the day. Walking doesn’t have these downsides.

Back before YouTube took off, I worked as a funeral caterer. The job kept me on my feet all day unloading caskets, serving food, and moving around. My phone showed I was getting 12 to 15,000 steps daily.

After two months, even though I didn’t change my diet or do any cardio, I ended up the leanest I had ever been. Every week when I went to the bathroom, I’d lift my shirt and my abs would pop just a little bit more.

Walking to this day remains my main form of cardio for getting lean and staying lean. I invested in an under desk treadmill. Twice a day I use it for 30 minutes while answering emails or doing basic tasks. That alone gives me 6,000 steps.

Throughout the day, I park further away at the grocery store to get more steps. When I need a break, I go for a walk around the block. This easily gets me over 10,000 steps.

Aim for 7,000 to 12,000 steps per day. A 30 minute walk gives you about 3,000 steps. If you add just a 30 minute walk every single day, the average person burns 100 to 200 calories from those 3,000 steps.

After a month, you can lose an extra pound of fat just from that daily walk. Every week, that speeds up your fat loss by about a quarter pound.

Does exercise target belly fat specifically?

No exercise targets belly fat directly, but certain types of exercise reduce visceral fat even without weight loss.

A 2023 study looked at how different types of cardio affect visceral fat. They found all types of exercise helped reduce visceral fat. But two types rose above the rest: moderate to high intensity cardio and interval training.

Unlike your stubborn love handles just sitting under your skin, visceral fat responds when your body sends out fat mobilizing hormones called catecholamines. These spike during higher intensity exercise.

You don’t need to kill yourself with endless all-out sprints. The exercise needed to burn visceral fat requires getting above 75% of your max heart rate. That’s not a walk in the park, but it’s far from an all-out sprint.

These workouts are quick if you do them right. Short 15 to 25 minute interval cardio sessions done two to three times per week make a measurable dent.

For each interval session, pick an exercise you can go hard at. One paper found running could be slightly more effective than cycling at reducing visceral fat, but the study had too many limitations to be meaningful. I enjoy sprints when the weather’s nice, but cycling, rowing, or the elliptical are easier to recover from.

Spend 5 minutes warming up. When you’re ready, go hard for 30 seconds. You don’t have to go all out, but you should breathe hard enough that holding a conversation becomes difficult.

Slow down and recover for 90 seconds. Repeat that for 6 to 10 rounds.

Interval training is tough and takes time to recover from, so you can’t do it very often. What matters most for reducing visceral fat is how much exercise you do in total rather than just how hard you go.

On your off days, set a walking goal of at least 8,000 steps. Walking is low impact, easy to stick to, and still helps chip away at your visceral fat over time.

Does stress cause belly fat?

Stress causes belly fat through several paths.

Stress increases cortisol production, which can increase your appetite. Stress can cause poor sleep, which also affects appetite and food choices. Stress can lead to less physical activity.

A 2001 study found women with high cortisol levels were more likely to eat high sugar foods and overeat in general.

If you can reduce stress, do it. Therapy, supplements, and meditation all help. I meditate daily. You can also try reducing your exposure to stress where possible. Better stress management helps you sleep better too.

Does sleep affect belly fat?

Bad sleep makes losing belly fat much harder.

The general agreement is that to burn fat, you need less than 7 hours of sleep each night. Bad sleep causes several problems.

It can cause fatigue, which reduces your daily activity levels. A 2009 analysis theorized poor sleep could lead to a reduction in NEAT. Remember, NEAT measures all the calories you burn through non-exercise activities.

Think about the last time you were tired. Small tasks like tying your shoelaces felt like an effort. Compare that to when you’re fully rested and you find yourself speeding around the kitchen cleaning up or pacing while on the phone.

These small movements don’t burn many calories on their own. But when combined throughout the day, week, and month, they contribute to a lot of your metabolism. Poor sleep can make a huge difference to your body weight by affecting energy expenditure.

Bad sleep also affects appetite in three ways. It can lead to reduced leptin levels (a hormone that helps you feel full after food). It can lead to increased ghrelin (a hormone that makes you feel hungry). Sleeping badly can lead to your brain seeking out high calorie foods by activating the same receptors as marijuana.

An increased appetite for high calorie foods and a reduced number of calories burned through activities makes losing belly fat much harder.

Aim for 7 to 8 hours of good quality sleep each night and you could see serious changes.

How long does it take to lose belly fat?

Losing belly fat takes consistent effort over months, not weeks.

For me to lose just the last part of my belly fat takes at least four months. This is why I work with clients for a minimum of four months. You won’t see any real change in one month.

It didn’t take you a month to gain the belly fat. It took years. Losing it works the same way.

You may fail one day or one week. But as long as you keep getting back up and staying consistent, you will see that belly fat come away.

The only way to lose belly fat in one week is through surgery. But I don’t recommend this because you’re not fixing the problem. You’re treating a symptom, not the actual cause.

FAQ

Can I lose belly fat without exercise?

Yes, you can lose belly fat through diet alone by maintaining a caloric deficit. But exercise, especially strength training and walking, helps you lose fat faster while keeping muscle.

Why does belly fat come back so easily?

Belly fat returns because most people go back to their old eating habits after losing weight. Six out of every seven people who lose significant weight don’t keep it off because they never changed their daily habits permanently.

Is belly fat different from other body fat?

Yes. Visceral belly fat wraps around your organs and releases inflammatory molecules linked to heart disease. This makes it more dangerous than the fat under your skin. But visceral fat is also easier to lose once you start losing weight.

Do ab exercises reduce belly fat?

No. Ab exercises strengthen your core muscles but don’t burn the fat covering them. You need to reduce overall body fat through diet and exercise to see your abs.

How much protein do I need daily to lose belly fat?

Take your body weight in pounds and multiply by 0.8. A 200 pound person needs 160 grams of protein daily. If you use kilograms, multiply by 1.8 instead.

Will eating late at night cause belly fat?

No. Total daily calories matter more than when you eat them. But eating late can lead to overeating because you’re more likely to choose high calorie snacks and less likely to feel full.

Can supplements help burn belly fat?

Most supplements marketed for belly fat don’t work. Focus on getting enough protein, eating whole foods, walking daily, and sleeping 7 to 8 hours. These proven strategies work better than any supplement.

If belly fat keeps coming back, it’s worth reviewing both training and lifestyle factors — see how exercise reduces body fat and check whether your weight sits in a healthy range in is 75 kg overweight?. For a personalised approach, explore a personal trainer in Melbourne.