Understanding Midlife Belly Fat

Philip Pape 0:01

Ah , that extra bit of fat around your midsection . It shows up uninvited , it seems to keep getting bigger and it refuses to leave , no matter how well you eat or how often you exercise . If you're in your 40s , 50s or beyond and feel like your body's working against you , especially in this area , this episode's for you . Today , we are uncovering the real factors behind midlife belly fat . You'll learn why conventional wisdom usually doesn't work and what to do instead , because when you understand the root causes of belly fat gain and , more importantly , why we care about it far beyond aesthetics , you can create an effective strategy to deal with it .

Philip Pape 0:38

So if you're frustrated with your belly fat , both for your health and physique , today you'll learn just what to do . Welcome to Wits and Weights , the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart , efficient systems to achieve your dream physique . I'm your host , philip Pape , and today we're tackling stubborn midlife belly fat . Now , standard advice , like you just need to lose weight or you need to work out your abs , are not going to cut it . The real causes are more complex and they are frequently misunderstood , and so by the end of this episode , you will understand what's really behind that stubborn belly fat and , more importantly , how to effectively address it . Let's just get right into it . All right , we're going to break this down into three areas . The first is why this even matters . The second is the causes , all the real causes . I have seven causes of belly fat to share with you today . And then , finally , how do we fight back ? How do we deal with it , if you need to or want to . And then , stick around , because later in the episode , I'm going to share the one thing that will dramatically change your approach to losing belly fat and improve your overall fitness , potentially without needing to lose weight at all . All right . So let's start with talking about why belly fat matters . Because in midlife and by midlife I mean starting as early as your 30s , but generally in your 40s , 50s and beyond it's kind of one of these unique issues because aesthetically , we start to notice that extra pudge , that extra what is it called ? Muffin top right , the fluff , the love handles , whatever around this age , and there are a bunch of reasons for that we are going to talk about in a second . But besides the aesthetic piece of it , there's the underlying health implications , because we are not talking about subcutaneous fat , that's the kind of fat that you can pinch . We are talking about visceral fat , the fat that wraps around your organs . Visceral fat is metabolically active , so it's almost like its own organ . If you think of it that way , it's like this little alien creature growing inside . I don't know if that creeps you out or not , but that's where my geeky mind goes . And maybe , if you think of it that way , it's like something you want to keep at bay , right ? Visceral fat ? It releases inflammatory substances , it releases hormones that negatively impact your health , and this is why even a modest increase in belly fat can lead to some health risks , some very serious health risks and is associated very strongly in the evidence with a higher risk of heart disease and stroke , increased likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes , greater risk of certain cancers , potential cognitive decline and dementia .

Philip Pape 3:19

And it gets kind of complicated when you get into the research because on one hand you find that there might be , it might simply have to do with having extra body fat . In general there is that , but there seems to be some independent factors , even in people that are a lower body weight , that are in normal quote unquote BMI range , where the belly fat itself seems to be an independent factor . And so it is more about than appearance , right , it's maintaining your health , maintaining your vitality . And then , yes , if you have aesthetic goals , if that bothers you a bit , then that'll be the outcome or the side effect of the lagging indicator Once you address these things . Having said that , I just one little caveat here is you know the belly area is a very loaded topic because you'll get some people saying that , no , it's okay to carry a little extra belly , that's totally normal .

Philip Pape 4:09

If you're a lifter , if you lift weights , you know having that power belly , having that extra weight , is a sign that you know you're carrying a decent amount of muscle and fat to kind of push those lifts . And even having said all that , there is still a risk factor with having too much of it . But too much is a little bit subjective and it's going to depend on you . And what I don't want you to come out of this episode is that you have to be shredded or you have to have a six pack or you have to be like completely devoid of fat visually in the abdomen area , because there is again still subcutaneous fat . We are all genetically different in terms of where we store fat and how it looks when the fat is distributed . When you get leaner , for example , you still might have some fat in that area and it might look a little more pronounced because the rest of your body is leaner . Kind of an irony there . That's like damn what the heck .

Philip Pape 4:58

And so it's going to really be very specific to everyone , and I just wanted to put that caveat out there , because even even I , when I get lean , like when I start to see a six pack , I still have this little pudge down there . I'm like , okay , that's just me , that's how I am . You know , maybe I've made some choices that have caused me to have more of that . Maybe I can clean some things up with what I'm doing , but in general , I probably just need to lose a little more body fat if I really want that to go away . And how important is that to me ? So you got to ask yourself that question like how important is that piece of it ?

Philip Pape 5:26

But we're going to focus more on the health side , all right , and that's why I want to dig into with this second segment here , what is really happening and causing midlife belly fat . Right , based on the evidence , okay , not based on conventional wisdom or the assumptions people make , even though there are some truths in some of those things , as we'll find out . So I think I've got seven things here that I came up with . The first one is the hormonal changes , and actually this probably is the biggest reason . We see a step change in the amount of belly fat we store as individuals . So for you as an individual , you're kind of used to something up until your 30s and then all of a sudden your 40s and 50s , it starts to shift more to the belly fat , even if you have roughly the same fat , even if you lift weights , you know , you just see it shift more to the belly fat , especially in women , but even for men as well , and it has to do with hormones . So for women , that decline in estrogen , primarily during perimenopause and menopause or postmenopause , it plays a significant role because estrogen regulates fat distribution and so as the levels drop , the fat storage shifts more toward the midsection . Again , this is not a thing that we just throw up our hands and give up . It just means we have to be aware this is happening .

Causes of Midlife Belly Fat

Philip Pape 6:42

Now , obviously , if you are seeking hormone replacement , hormone treatment , that can help , if that's something that's indicated for you . For some of you you may not be able to be on treatment . Maybe you had cancer or something like that . So everyone's going to have a different situation . For men , decreasing testosterone is the primary factor and keep in mind , women also have a decrease because lower testosterone correlates not because I'm not giving you the mechanistic factor , but in the evidence we see that lower testosterone correlates with increased belly fat , independent of muscle loss , because testosterone influences fat storage as well . So hormones are the biggest change . It's not much you can do about other than therapy , hormone treatment , asterisk caveat , with the exception that the things we're going to talk about later with strategies that can improve hormones can then also improve some of these a bit .

Philip Pape 7:31

Okay , the second cause of midlife belly fat is stress , chronic stress and chronic stress is prevalent as we get older . Right , because you've got more obligations , we've got kids , you might be the care , the sole caretaker or homemaker or what am I trying to say ? Head of household whatever , that's a tax term . Head of household , you have a lot of obligations , you have a lot of stuff to deal with and people to take care of , and it's wonderful because you've got a family and you're becoming that person who you know is surrounded by loving people , hopefully , but it's stressful . You know work obligations , financial obligations and chronic stress elevate your cortisol levels , and we know there's a link between high cortisol and so many things .

Philip Pape 8:15

I mean , I don't want to go overboard on the cortisol being the root of everything , but there is an association with , you know , higher cortisol on a chronic basis and increased abdominal fat storage , and so , being aware of that , how the fat storage in the visceral area seems to be a protective mechanism . We're going to see this pattern throughout this . It seems to be a protective mechanism , very much like how your metabolism adapts to save energy when you're dieting , and so we don't want to be in a situation where we cause our body to be fighting and away from homeostasis , which it's always fighting to get there . We want to give it the best shot of kind of relaxing and being in a normal state with our hormones and our cortisol . So just keep in mind hormones , stress and stress is something we could do about it . We can't change our situation precisely . We can change how we cope with it , how we mitigate it , and that'll be part , you know , one of the strategies we talk about .

Philip Pape 9:09

The third cause of belly fat is insulin resistance , and this is a tricky one because there's a lot of misinformation about insulin resistance . We know that as we age , as we lose muscle mass and with a fairly poor or low quality diet and we're becoming less active as well , our bodies become less sensitive to insulin , right , and then that affects how your body processes and stores energy more likely as fat , more likely around the abdomen , and research clearly shows that connection as well . But what we're going to find is insulin resistance is something we have a lot of control over with our lifestyle . Number four is sleep deprivation . Okay , I know I talk a lot about sleep . That's because sleep is super important and the connection between poor sleep and belly fat is actually one of the strongest connections . I don't have it in my notes , but I believe there's a study that showed , over a five-year period , a 32% increase in belly fat storage with sleep deprived individuals , people less than five hours of sleep a day , versus people getting not much more , but like six to seven . It's not like you have to get eight or nine hours , like Tom Brady getting 11 hours or something . I don't know what he gets these days being retired , maybe it's less , maybe it's more . But the point is , lack of sleep disrupts your bunch of hormones because again it's your body fighting to get back to some state of energy that you're depriving it of with this lack of sleep , and so it cranks up the hormones the hunger and fullness hormone . Ghrelin is the hunger hormone , leptin is the fullness hormone . So it goes the opposite directions on both , making you more hungry . You crave sweets , you crave foods that have a lot of energy . You tend to overconsume . If you are in a calorie surplus , you're going to gain more fat around the abdomen with less sleep than someone else who's in a surplus , that has enough sleep . That alone should be a wake-up call to you saying , oh interesting , like okay , I'm stressed , I don't get enough sleep . That , combined with the hormones , is just a perfect storm .

Philip Pape 11:04

Then we get to number five , which is alcohol . Okay now , on one hand , I think this factor goes a little bit unnoticed in terms of how important it is for visceral fat storage . On the other hand , I think it gets too much play when we talk about things like the beer gut . When somebody's like , well , you just drink too much beer , that is why you have visceral fat , chances are somebody that's over-consuming . Alcohol is probably over-consuming in other areas , probably not as active , probably not lifting weights , probably probably right , I mean definitely people that consume alcohol can have other healthy things in their lifestyle . But there are correlations .

Philip Pape 11:34

The evidence is pretty clear . Okay , alcohol effectively halts I'll say halts your body's fat burning process because your body is prioritizing breaking down the alcohol before it gets to the other nutrients . This is a known phenomenon and that includes pulling energy from fat . Now , if you're in a calorie deficit and still drinking alcohol , you're still going to lose fat in that case in terms of net energy , because you're in energy deficit . But it could affect your muscle mass . It could affect how your body processes protein for preserving that muscle . So something's going to get affected because you're drinking alcohol and then , as a result , it's shown to be linked to increased visceral fat . Again , we know we call it a beer gut for guys . There's a reason we call it that , because just intuitively , people have seen this for decades or centuries that this happens , and that's even when controlling for calorie intake . I want to be clear that these are independent indicators , even though they also get exacerbated based on chronic dieting or overconsumption .

Philip Pape 12:34

All right , number six out of the seven true hidden causes here of belly fat that you may not be aware of is age-related muscle loss . And I say age-related because a lot of people , the vast majority of people , are not strength training and we lose muscle mass with age . It's called sarcopenia and it accelerates after the age of 30 , something like three to 8% of your muscle mass per decade after 30 . And so you just really start to see it . At that point your bodies can no longer coast from its post-puberty 20s , early 30s . Now you start to lose muscle mass because you're doing nothing to maintain it , you're doing nothing to build it , you're not lifting weights , and so it's not because you're getting older , it's simply because the body doesn't need the muscle .

Philip Pape 13:17

You're telling it it's not important . It loses the muscle mass and along with that muscle loss actually comes more visceral fat storage . That was my point here . Okay , so along with the muscle loss , your body is now storing fat , and it's storing more of it in the belly area . So , in other words , if you were training to maintain muscle and you were over-consuming , you wouldn't store as much belly fat . It's very amazing how these things happen , how the body knows what to do almost intuitively to help protect you , but it's going overboard because you are not acting in a way that is natural to being a human . You're not lifting weights , you're not putting load on your skeletal system , skeletal muscular system .

Jenny V. 13:58

Hi , my name is Jenny and I just wanted to say a big thank you to Philip Pape of Wits and Weights for the 15-minute rapid nutrition assessment he offers for free . During that session , I found he asked really good personal questions that helped him be able to give me excellent advice and tangible tools which I've applied , and since then I have lost 12 pounds where I was otherwise stuck . Now that I'm closer to my weight goals , I'm focusing more on my fitness and muscle and strength . So I just really want to say thanks , philip , for all of your encouragement and the free tools you offer , as well as the positive podcast message . It's really helped me .

Philip Pape 14:41

And then number seven is no surprise , but a sedentary lifestyle , right , our modern lifestyle . We're less active , we are older , we have desk jobs , we sit around all day . If you're not in a habit of moving , of walking , of doing a little cardio you know a little cardio . I'm just saying you know something fun that you throw in there , even if it's just running upstairs a couple times a day , but primarily it's just getting off your butt on a regular basis . That has contributed to more belly fat storage as well .

Philip Pape 15:11

Prolonged sitting , in particular , is directly linked to increased visceral fat , even in people who exercise or train regularly . That is why I constantly say that I think of movement as like three buckets . In general , you want to be active all day somehow right , not necessarily moving quickly or intensely or sweating , but you don't want to be sitting all day . So we have our training sessions , we might have our walking or cardio sessions , but we should also have our not sitting time , okay , throughout the day . So if we understand that these are the causes right and we see that midlife belly fat is it's not just about overeating or not exercising enough , it's hormonal , it's metabolic , it's overall lifestyle , then our approach to it is just the inverse . It's a comprehensive way to combat these things , and so , given what we know , then you know simple advice is oversimplifying thing . The conventional advice in the industry is just always like eat less , move more , and that's not going to cut it right . What we have to do is focus on sustainable lifestyle changes , creating a system for ourselves that improve our body composition , and so something that I've talked about many times on this show is fat loss versus weight loss . In fact , last week's Monday episode if you go look in the feed , I'll drop a link to the show notes in there it was called why Weight Loss Always Fails , and in that episode I give you the rundown of why we care about body composition . And if you do the things that support body composition , you'll do the things that support reduced belly fat accumulation . So that's things like prioritizing strength training , number one right Always to build and preserve muscle mass , to maintain that metabolic fire , that efficiency in your body , all of which tells your body that I need the resources to go toward muscle and toward an active lifestyle , not get stored , especially not get stored in the belly . Increased movement beyond those workouts which you just talked about , finding ways to be active throughout the day .

Philip Pape 17:08

Nutrition is the big lever , not the big lever , but in addition to training and movement , nutrition is the other big lever that we can kind of I'm going to say easily control right , and that's the thing that affects insulin sensitivity , that affects our inflammation , it's the quality of food , it's the timing of food relative to when you need those resources like around your training , like allowing you to sleep by not eating too late and balancing your macros out , which helps with blood sugar control and overall controlling your energy balance based on your goal . So , yeah , you will have periods of fat loss , but generally most of the year you know , three quarters of the year you should probably be at maintenance or in a surplus to feed yourself and also feed your training , right ? We're not just eating to get fat , we are eating to build muscle , which is so metabolically helpful throughout this whole process . And then stress management and sleep are , of course , essential . They are not optional , they are essential . They actually influence where your body stores fat , as kind of a compliment to your nutrition and training .

Philip Pape 18:08

And then alcohol has special mention . As always , my philosophy is always whatever you're doing now , if you can shift and nudge yourself toward less alcohol consumption , that will always be better all the way to zero . It is the one kind of exception I make when I talk about nutrition , where , when it comes to nutrition , I want you to add things in . I want you to add in in . I want you to add in protein , I want you to add in fiber , whole grains , fruits , vegetables , delicious , real foods that have the nutrients and macronutrients to support what you're doing . That will naturally crowd things out . We call that additive nutrition . I've talked about many times on the show . If you need a specific episode on that , I'm happy to send it to you .

Philip Pape 18:47

But alcohol itself is kind of an outlier . It's not really nutrition , is it ? Alcohol is a toxin , it's a poison . There are zero benefits to alcohol . But I understand why , culturally and historically and socially , we do it and I still . I don't abstain entirely . I still have a beer every now and then , a special occasion , or a glass of wine , or I might take a shot with friends . I honestly do . I'm just being totally honest . But I'll tell you what I keep no beer or wine in the house , and so where I used to have a glass of wine every day , it then became a glass of beer every Saturday and now it's zero alcohol most weeks and I might drink once a month . So that's what I'm asking you to consider is can you shift your alcohol consumption just in a positive direction by adding other things in , including experiences that would take the place of what alcohol gives you ? So that's all I'm going to

Building Core Strength for Health

Philip Pape 19:39

say about alcohol .

Philip Pape 19:39

I do think it has a huge impact , though , on visceral fat storage , whether you're gaining weight or not . Even if you're in fat loss , I think it's holding you back from properly using all the nutrients for the other things we care about . So , whereas other nutrition , you're trying to add this in alcohol is kind of preventing it , and so we're trying to limit it and reduce it . Now your journey is unique , like your goals are unique . Your body fat and your body type is unique . It's going to be very personalized for you . All right , and you know to do that is more than what I can explain in an episode , but I do just let you know I do do free calls with people that are not sales pitches . It's called a rapid nutrition assessment and I'm going to throw the link in the show notes If you want to schedule one just to talk about . Hey , I heard your episode about belly fat . I've got that and I just want to understand why , what causes important to me and what is one or two steps I can take away to get immediate results on this in the next 90 days . So I'll include the link in the show notes . But I want to get to the last thing here that I think could be a takeaway today that you can act on right now and it's going to make all of this other stuff easier and you might not even have to lose weight and that is the importance of actually training your abs but , more importantly than your abs , all of the core , slash , trunk , slash , posterior chain muscles .

Philip Pape 21:04

Now Megan Dalleman she was on the show a couple of times . She's the host of Self-Care Simplified . So shout out to her . And this episode is dropping right after my most recent interview episode with her . So the last episode was with Megan about joint pain and back pain inflammation , but the last time she was on I think it was episode 149 , she talked about belly fat and a lot of the same things we covered today . I think today's went into a longer and a lot of the same things we covered today . I think today's went into a longer detailed explanation of all the causes , but definitely check that out . Anyway , she is a big fan of having a strong core , defined as the deep core muscles as well as the visual core muscles and your glutes right and your lower back kind of the whole mid-trunk and how that can help with a lot of these things with your posture , with joint pain , but also with belly fat .

Philip Pape 21:55

And what I want to focus specifically on is training your abs , because , no , you cannot spot reduce . That is not a thing . You can't just like do a bunch of crunches and lose a bunch of fat and do nothing else and you're good to go . But we can build strength and muscle in a way that supports the midsection and and it will help with the visceral fat and it will also help with the aesthetics , since I know some of you probably clicked on this episode because you're like , yeah , how do I get a six pack ? And it's cool , like it all works together . That's the nice thing about it . You don't have to do two separate things .

Philip Pape 22:25

These goals work together , and so when you focus on strengthening your core and I'll tell you how you can do this in a second but you're then going to have a foundation for overall strength and better performance in all of your lifts . You're going to be able to push harder in the gym . You're going to stand with better posture , you're going to be more functional and then it's also going to be easier to reveal definition in your abs because you have that extra muscle . Also , extra muscle stretches things out to where the fat on top of that muscle , which is mainly the subcutaneous fat I'm referring to , kind of gets stretched out as well . So if some of your belly fat is really just subcutaneous , it will help that right . So a stronger core means you can push harder on your big lifts like squats and deadlifts , but also everything . You're creating a base that gives you power , that gives you stability in everything that you do right , and then , as you lose body fat , you're going to reveal you know , yeah , a flatter stomach and muscle definition , and then you can achieve the tone look that you're looking for at a higher overall body weight , which means you may not even have to lose fat , depending on where you're starting from , if you're just quote unquote a little overweight .

Philip Pape 23:39

I've had so many clients in that position where we start them on a pre-diet maintenance phase . Okay , we put them at maintenance , we're eating our protein . We're training for strength . Yeah , we've got some core work in there , maybe , but it's mostly through big lifts . It's not like a ton of crunches , but we may have a little bit of ab and glute work in there .

Philip Pape 23:54

And then , after about say six weeks , we're doing our check-ins , and sometimes they'll say , okay , are we ready for fat loss ? Sometimes , though , they say you know what ? I'm not sure I want to even go into calorie deficit . This is way too much fun . I'm eating all this food , I'm lifting weights . I'm not really gaining weight , but I'm getting more definition . That's what we're going for .

Philip Pape 24:13

Like that is kind of the win-win-win of all of this is you get to do the process . That's fun , you get to have the results , you don't have to diet , and you get improved aesthetics . Like it's a pretty cool place to be , and so I've seen this play out , where you build the core of strength right , and then , yeah , you could do fat loss if you want , but you don't have to , and you're going to now be less prone to injury . For example , you're going to have less pain in your back and you're going to have less pain joint pain in your knees and your elbows . So you probably didn't think that an episode about belly fat would lead to overall fitness and health . But your trunk , your core right , your glutes are all part of this deep system that stabilizes your spine and your pelvis right . Even when you're doing things like an overhead press , it will help you with better form , which means less injury . And now you're investing in the future you , your long-term health , your functionality not just , but in addition to your appearance . So don't just think about losing belly fat , think about building everything that's underneath , because belly fat reduction is good for your health and your aesthetics , but this also supports everything else . With your aesthetics and your performance and your strength and your capability , and then your confidence , you're going to be a super confident person . So that's how we do it .

Philip Pape 25:36

Let's just recap it here . Number one midlife belly fat is not just aesthetic , it's not just cosmetic , it is a significant health concern . Number two the causes are complex Hormones , stress , sleep , muscle loss , lifestyle . And then , number three , you can address many of these through your lifestyle choices , taking the right approach with training , nutrition , sleep , stress management and so on . Number four if you build core strength core strength and not just ab muscles right Core strength , doing your squats and deadlifts , and then adding in accessory work that supports your core , your glutes yes , your abs , all of it . It improves your overall fitness . It can also reveal muscle definition as you lose fat , or even without having to lose much weight , and then everything improves your health , strength , quality of life , everything Okay .

Philip Pape 26:23

Your body is capable of remarkable change at any age . In fact , when you're in your 40s and 50s , if you thought life has passed you by , if you've thought that you haven't been doing the right things , what better time to start than right now and , in fact , get a crazy amount of positive change in your body at this age ? Because it will happen . It will happen . I've had clients that are 60 , that have started and they get just incredible improvements in their health and physique . And then everybody looks around and is like what are you doing ? Just incredible improvements in their health and physique . And then everybody looks around and is like what are you doing ? I didn't know that was possible . I thought you were getting old , aren't you getting old ? Hormones Can't do anything about it . Hands thrown up , emoji , no , it's not like that .

Philip Pape 27:00

Okay , now again , I can't tell you all the step-by-step-by-step in this episode . So if you want to act on this . Schedule a call with me . I've got these free 15-minute rapid nutrition assessments which I mentioned once before . It's your chance to just sit with me on a Zoom chat for 15 minutes . Hey , what's going on ? Hey , where do you live ? What's happening , how's the weather , and then we'll get into .

Philip Pape 27:21

Okay , what's the thing holding you back ? What are you trying to do here ? Let me help you out . Maybe there's a little misconception , maybe there's something that unlock your perspective or thinking . Maybe I could just give you a nice laugh and some motivation and , you know , send you on your way . More likely , what happens is you come away with one , two or three steps okay , that I like to max it at three that will tell you like do this , do this , do this .

Philip Pape 27:42

This is what we're going to start with to get you some results , and I will send you a follow-up email with those , with some resources if needed . I'll be available if you have questions . All of this is totally free , because I want you to know that the change is possible , okay , and that there are things you can start doing , and that I'm happy to tell you the process and how those things work . I'm not going to hide anything behind a paywall or anything silly like that , like these , you know , hyped up marketing coaches . I don't do that , so schedule a call with me . It's not a sales pitch .

Belly Fat Plan Creation

Philip Pape 28:11

Go to witsandweightscom , click the button at the top or click the link in my show notes and let's just create a plan for you . Okay , let's get you going . That's it for belly fat . I hope you found something insightful today , something different , something unique , something you hadn't thought of before . Until next time , keep using your wits , keep lifting those weights and remember that your midlife can be your best years yet . This is Philip Pape . You've been listening to Wits and Weights and , as always , I will talk to you next time .