As we get older, it is increasingly difficult to lose fat by dieting. The place where our bodies tend to store this fat is around our midsection – this belly fat can be very difficult to lose. You might have had someone mention to you that you are developing a beer gut when you don’t even drink beer! You are starting to understand belly fat.

It is part of the body’s natural defense mechanism against famine-to store belly fat. In modern times, our metabolism has not changed to tell it that it is alright to get rid of that belly fat, we don’t need the fat stores to fight famine, and we can run to the ice cream stand or a fast food restaurant if we need belly fat storage.

When you try to lose fat by dieting, the body’s metabolism sends a signal to the brain that tells the fat burning or fat storing hormones that you are experiencing a famine and hold onto any empty calories you take in. The body thinks if you are taking in calories that are empty in nutrition, you have nothing else to eat, so it holds onto as many of those calories as it can, many times as belly fat. You have to fool the metabolism by eating different foods, so it will not think it is experiencing famine.

When you are exceptionally busy or stressed, you may not eat much – but you can still gain weight. This as a result of the metabolism thinking you are experiencing a famine, as well as the effects of Cortisol, an enzyme which is responsible for among other things, storing belly fat.

A lot of diets do not allow you to get the variety of foods you need to keep up your metabolism and fat burning hormones. If you reduce the amount of calories you are taking in, your metabolism will typically respond by slowing down to match your lower caloric intake. This will have you hitting a plateau quickly and remaining the same weight. If you are dieting with the goal of reducing your belly fat, then you need to stay one step ahead of your metabolism by varying the foods you eat every few days.

To eliminate fat, you need to trick your fat burning hormones and your brain into believing that you are still taking in enough calories – this will cause your metabolism to go ahead and use the energy stored as fat, which helps you to lose belly fat.

When dieting to lose fat, you need to balance your fat burning hormone levels and your metabolism by eating the right amount of nutritional and fat burning calories. This will let you lose belly fat even while eating a lower calorie diet. Since your body will only use stored fat after burning what you are taking in, you will have to have a lower caloric intake while keeping your metabolism high.

The best way to understand belly fat and to begin losing that excess fat is to eat a variety of foods more than three times a day to keep your metabolism operating at a high rate, like the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet that is highly recommended at the link below.