Declining hormones and age can create a cascade of body issues and weight gain. If your stomach won’t shrink or tighten, here are some tricks to try out:
Declining hormones and age can create a cascade of body issues and weight gain. If your stomach won’t shrink or tighten, here are some tricks to try out:
Get better rest
We are all trying to cram more and more into our lives and often when life gets busy, the first thing to go is sleep. Many people are getting by on five hours of sleep a night or less! Constant sleep deprivation can have side effects beyond the typical dragging feeling and need for a caffeine fix. A lack of sleep increases the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone and insulin, both of which can cause your body to store fat particularly that stubborn, uncomfortable layer of fat around the middle.
Resist refined carbs
Middle-aged women are dealing with imbalanced hormones, which makes them crave sugar and carbohydrates. All those cookies, breads and pastas may taste great, but they will wreak havoc on your health. They create big spikes in your blood sugar and insulin levels and if your body does not have a use for that sugar spike, it stores the sugar or starch as fat and places it right around your middle. Skip – White rice, white bread, standard pasta, and white-flour treats like cookies, cakes, and muffins all spike your blood sugar quickly.
Ditch the white wine
So what’s the harm with a glass or two at lunch, or a glass in the afternoon, or a couple with dinner? White wine is sugar and unless you need it as instant energy, your body will store sugar as fat – along with whatever else you are eating with it. The pounds inevitably creep on, usually through the belly and butt area.
Move more
From middle age on, there’s nothing more vital to your health and weight control than building lean muscle mass, and the only way that happens is with weight training and exercise. One will need to lose weight in general to lose fat from your stomach area and the increased caloric burn from muscle helps you lose weight faster than you would otherwise. Women should be engaging in moderate aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes, at least three times per week — though the more you can do, the better.
Stay hydrated
Drink at least eight glasses of water a day in order to stay regular, lose weight and detoxify. Bodies are mostly made of water and yet we lose two to three quarts of it every day through perspiration and other bodily functions. As a result, we need to constantly replenish our stores to ensure the right hydration levels to carry nutrients and waste to and from all our cells.
