I was wondering how people get beer belly just by frequent drinking. Is it just body fat? Are your organs getting larger or something? Is beer actually making your stomach large and round or are you just gaining weight?
In: Biology
My understanding is that fat just accumulates around the belly for men more than women. A fair few of my older male relatives who drink regularly all have beer bellies.
People also don’t consume alcohol as a substitute to food, rather complementary. People tend to forgot or don’t know that alcohol is the second most calorific nutrient (7 kcal/g) behind fat (9kcal/g). So you’ll easily gain fat if you tip into a calorie surplus.
The main thing is gaining weight, and genetics telling the body where to put it. Other effects are, at best, secondary.
Middle aged men typically like to sit, drink beer and eat bad food. Men (and esp older) typically carry weight around the waist. “Beer belly” is a cutesie way to describe the result.
An interesting thing is that even lean men apparantly typically get a more solid torso with age. Ragusea talks about this in body building context, where it goes even for the real slimmest folks. We apparantly get more solid.
Buuuuuut, the Main thing is weight and calories and bmi.
It is mostly liver fat. I lost 40lbs and cured my fatty liver in 6mo with Keto diet. Shrunk it by 7cm. (Mine was nonalcoholic fatty liver though.)
It is also partially posture. As I gained weight, I started turning my feet out for support, which disengaged your glutes and quads, and slouches you in such a way as to distend your belly.
I’m struggling with this right now. I have skinny legs but a beer belly. I stopped drinking beer in January and started working out. I’ve lost 10 pounds and feel more energized, but my gut has only decreased slightly. Not sure what I’m doing wrong
Fat tissue doesn’t just store fat cells. It stores toxins, vitamins, minerals, water, hormones, etc. Alcohol is particular nasty for fat storage because not only do the calories in beer ad water get stored as fat but also the acetaldehyde toxin that build up when body isn’t clearing it.
Two main things.
First, men in general add weight in the stomach and midsection, as opposed to anywhere else.
And second, the “mass” we have in other areas tends to be partly muscle. And as many guys get older, they become more sedentary, while at the same time, testosterone drops. So while your sedentary lifestyle causes your gut to grow, that plus testosterone loss is also causing your shoulders, chest, legs to shrink as the muscle fades away.
Those small shoulders and legs make the giant belly look even bigger by comparison.
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