Do you have a protruding belly that you’re not very proud of? If it sticks out from the rest of your torso and makes you feel self-conscious, you may have wondered what caused it in the first place.
We all store body fat in different ways. For some people, that will go straight to the thighs, whereas other people will see it hang on their upper arms. It’s fairly common for fatty deposits to develop in the lower abdomen, creating a lower belly pooch. Knowing what causes it and how that came about will help you to fight it.
If you’re wanting to lose some weight and stop absorbing so much fat in that area, then perhaps this article can help you.
5 Things that Contribute to Lower Belly Pooch
1. Alcohol Consumption
What causes lower belly pooch? Well, if you have heard of the term “beer belly”, that may very well be what you have. Alcohol has a lot of sugar in it, and beers are some of the biggest culprits. That’s going to deposit in your body wherever it finds a comfortable place to take up residence, and for many people that’s their lower abdomen.
Drinking alcohol regularly contributes to weight gain, creating fatty deposits that are hard to get rid of. If you’re wanting to eliminate that belly pooch, cutting alcohol out of your diet is a good place to start, especially if you imbibe frequently.
2. Stress
Did you know that stress causes you to gain weight? Changes in mood, particularly depression, can lead to eating disorders or overeating. While you may not have an eating addiction, you could have a mood disorder or simply excess stress in your life that’s causing you to eat more than you should.
When you don’t feel well emotionally or you’re down, you may tend to get hungry. You might feel like eating can satisfy your cravings, and those cravings tend to be for unhealthy foods.
After all, when was the last time you craved to have a carrot? People are more likely to eat foods like potato chips, French fries, ice cream, cake, cookies, and other sweet, sugary, and salty snacks.
What can help is to keep healthy snacks on hand. If you know that you’re going to have hunger cravings, you should have something healthy to reach for. Keeping sugar and fried foods out of your home is one of the best ways to combat stress eating.
Also look for ways to decrease your stress levels. Find out what’s causing you to stress and try to eliminate it from your life as much as possible, or at least reduce its presence in your life.
3. Eating Unhealthy Foods
Even if you don’t stress much and you avoid alcohol, you can still end up with a low belly fat deposit. What causes the lower belly pooch in these cases? It’s probably down to what you eat and how much of it you eat.
If you’re not careful what foods you consume or never bother to count calories, there’s a good chance that you don’t have a healthy diet. You can start to change that by looking at what you eat, carefully planning out your meals, and following a diet program of some kind.
I always advocate for a diet plan that replaces unhealthy foods with healthy ones and that focuses on eating less of certain food groups and more of others. Here’s a good way to break down your diet plan into something that’s simple, accessible, and not too strict:
- Cut out sugar, unhealthy oil, and salt as much as possible (that’s the order of how dangerous they are from most to least)
- Focus on eating lean meats and protein- mainly poultry, beans, nuts, eggs, and soya
- Replace fatty cooking oils (like vegetable and canola) with healthy ones (olive, coconut)
- Bake your foods instead of frying them
- Eat out less
4. Living a Sedentary Lifestyle
If you’re like a lot of people these days, you spend most of your time sitting down, probably in front of the screen. If that’s true of you or there’s some other way in which you live a mostly sedentary lifestyle, then you need to make a change.
You’re likely consuming a lot more calories each day than what you burn, so you’re going to end up with fatty deposits in trouble spots like your lower abdomen.
If you’re wondering what causes quickly lower belly pooch, it’s likely down to lifestyle changes that leave you with a more sedentary way of living. You will find that people who experience some kind of accident that puts them on crutches or bed rest end up gaining weight, particularly in the lower abdomen.
People who change jobs from one that is strenuous or active to one that is sedentary often experience the same weight gain.
When many people go through these life changing situations, whether they are good or bad things, they often don’t change up how much they exercise or what they’re eating. They try to stick to the same routine, even though their level of activity for most of the day has changed. If that happens to you, that’s going to mean a lot of extra fat on your body that’s not going anywhere and not being used as energy.
You’ll have to make a change to accommodate the more sedentary lifestyle, and one of the best ways to do that is to be more careful about what you eat, controlling your portions, and being more active. You may want to spend a few hours at the gym each week or you could try walking more often.
5. Poor Sleep Patterns
Another thing that can contribute to a to belly pooch is not getting enough sleep. If your sleep schedule is irregular, you can feel irritable and moody and suffer from a lot of different food cravings.
Your metabolism may suffer and might not work very well either, and that’s going to cause problems with your digestion and how your body stores and uses fat.
If you’re trying to lose weight and get fit, getting enough sleep is important. A lot of the other factors mentioned already can contribute to a poor sleep cycle.
If you’re stressed, eating unhealthy foods, or you’re not getting enough exercise during the day, you may have trouble sleeping. That’s also going to make you feel tired, and you’re not going to want to exercise. When you do exercise, you may not be able to do it for long, and your performance could suffer.
A lot of these different factors work together to create the belly pooch. If you’re wanting to get rid of that excess fat, you need to make changes across the board. If any or all of these factors apply to you, it may be time to make some serious lifestyle changes. Once you do, you should start to see that belly pooch disappear.
If you are being treated for any health problem, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor first before beginning any major diet changes or starting a new exercise program. There could be some health risks you don’t know about or not considering that could affect whether making these changes will be right for you at this time.
