Belly is one of the most challenging areas to lose weight. Sometimes, even after losing weight, belly fat can come back. Fitness trainer Christine Stines, who dropped nine kgs in four months, frequently shares tips regarding weight loss with her Instagram community. In a September 8 post, she revealed a surprising reason why many women struggle to lose belly fat, and what she did to help turn it around for herself.
Changing your eating habits are essential to regulate hormones like insulin. (PC: Freepik)
Christine explained that there are two primary sources of energy: sugar and fat. Now, here’s where it gets interesting: which one the body burns does not depend on your calorie count. Often, people enter a calorie deficit, carefully monitoring the number of calories they add to their plate to burn more fat, rather than focusing on what they are eating. But what source is used depends on what you are eating, not just on how much you are eating.
What happens when you eat carbs?
Christine explained, “Every time you eat carbs (like toast, oatmeal, or even bananas), your blood sugar rises. That rise triggers insulin — and insulin tells your body to store energy, not burn it.”
When your body has high insulin levels, fat burning is turned off, energy crashes occur, and cravings, hunger, and mood swings become more frequent.
So in other words, if you have high insulin levels, all roads lead to belly fat, and may be a dead end as well.
Doing everything right but still not losing belly fat?
The fitness trainer also admitted that she used to do everything right, eating healthy and working out, but still suffered from stubborn belly fat, low energy, and constant cravings.
But according to her, all these signs are indicators of chronically high insulin. So the problem is insulin spike, as she noted, “The more my insulin spiked… and the harder fat loss became.”
How to reduce belly fat?
Belly fat is a hormonal problem, so the solution is not just working out or eating clean. It’s about understanding how to manage the root hormonal issue.
The change that helped Christine big time was modifying the first meal of the day.
The trainer remarked, “I changed how I built my first meal of the day. Let’s say I have a high-fiber dinner, and nothing after that. While I’m sleeping, my blood sugar stabilizes… and by morning, I wake up in fat-burning mode.”
The predecessor of breakfast, which is dinner, also needs to be taken into consideration, as it sets up your body for the overnight fast, shaping how you burn fat the next morning.
Here’s a mistake that the fitness trainer highlighted that people commonly do: “They start the day with oatmeal or toast, which seems healthy, but floods your bloodstream with sugar and flips your body straight back into sugar-burning mode.”
So instead of sugar as a source, fat needs to be burned. But that moment, as per Christine is gone before you even take the first sip of coffee. This is why the fitness trainer does not focus on counting calories. She shared an example to explain better: 150 calories from a donut and 150 calories from Greek yoghurt may be the same in quantity, but they cause completely different hormonal responses in the body. Calorie count is not just the only deciding factor for weight loss. One also needs to keep in mind that hormones also control fat loss.
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This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.