Why Your Belly Fat Won't Budge

Happily Eating In Food Freedom!

Staring at my body in the mirror I felt huge frustration surge through me; so much anger and confusion about what was happening to my body. I was exercising every day; HIIT workouts after work, runs before work and F45 sessions as often as possible, but I was still unable to minimise the belly fat collecting around my middle. In fact it was getting worse! I was eating small, healthy salads, fruit, snacking on nuts and limiting my calorie intake as much as possible but annoyingly I was feeling more and more intense cravings for sugar and carbohydrate filled foods. I just couldn't grasp control of my belly fat, weight or hunger and it was driving me crazy.

Looking back at this scene I feel nothing but compassion for my younger self. I can clearly see the conditioning and naivety that was driving me to unconsciously create metabolic havoc and hormonal imbalance in my body, when I thought I was doing all the 'right' things to achieve the skinny appearance I wanted, that seemed so easy for everyone else. Everything I had learned about health, food, the 'eat less exercise more' approach, as a child, teen and young adult was no longer serving me as a 35 year old woman. This frustration was driving me to become completely obsessed with my physical appearance and to dig my fingers more and more deeply into the image of my body that seemed so important to me at the time, but that I continuously failed to achieve. I was depressed, miserable, had continuous brain fog, a poor memory and felt disconnected from my body continuously.

I'm sharing this with you because I hear stories like this from women all the time. ‘I can't lose belly fat'. 'I'm going to the gym 5 times a week and eating 2 meals per day but I can't lose the weight I want to’. ‘I’m fasting for 20 hours per day but I still can’t shift the fat around my middle’. I’ve been there, I know how frustrating that is. It doesn’t make sense.

Everywhere in our modern society is a constant and pervading message to be dissatisfied with your appearance, body shape and size. Insidious in our culture and preying on women's insecurities to create a desire in them to always want to look different. Whether that’s smaller, bigger, slimmer, leaner, stronger, lighter, more curvy, less curvy, bigger eye brows, fuller lips, larger boobs. It's hard to resist giving in to the temptation to conform to the manufactured ideal of what we 'should' look like, and that so much importance is placed on (generating a huge amount of money for some). As I fought to recover from the eating disorder I had developed and lived with for 20 years I learned about the darker side of why these types of conditions including behaviours like binge eating, emotional eating, stress eating etc, are so prevalent in our society today and why they're on the rise.

What I’m getting at here is that these sorts of behavioural and mental disorders are a product of (many factors but also) how we live and the damaging messaging from diet culture, the beauty industry and the impact they have on women's psyches. Below I share the most important lesson I have learned and continue to apply to my life daily, after going through my own eating disorder recovery journey, whilst studying an MSc in Human Nutrition, starting my own business Natural Nutrition, and then developing a group coaching programme Intuitive Food Freedom www.naturalnut.co.uk/intuitivefoodfreedom, to help women like me to heal their relationship with food and their bodies.

My Biggest Lesson: Exercising more and eating less doesn't work.

Belly fat is notoriously difficult to lose, and generally if you have ever been on a weight loss journey you'll probably know that you'll lose fat from there last. The reasons for this are complex but I will try to break this down for you. 

When we exercise, we create stress in our bodies, which is certainly a good thing when it is acute (short lived). During exercise, cortisol and a soup of other hormones are released, some of which make us feel great and the high we get after exercise. However, when we over exercise (the definition of this will differ from person to person) and also live with stress in other areas of our lives created by intermittent fasting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, rushing from work to the gym and having long stressful days with less sleep than we need, we end up in a state of chronic physical and mental stress. If you add that to probable calorie deficit or restriction then you're in for a difficult time. 

Restricting calories whilst exercising intensively can create a significant nutrient deficit in the short term which is usually replenished by food (why hunger is usually increased after exercise). However if you're restricting food and creating a calorie deficit, the gap is not replenished and so the hormonal balance gets disrupted. The raw materials that are used to make the host of hormones released during exercise such as cortisol, adrenalin and norepinephrine, are used in their synthesis at the expense of other non essential hormones in the body. And yes you've guessed it, the reproductive hormones are non essential for survival so it's the hormones like FSH, LH and progesterone which suffer. Hence why female athletes and those with eating disorders often stop menstruating.

Oestrogen dominance I later found out was the reason for the belly fat that I couldn't lose, the brain fog, depression, poor memory and constant craving for carbs. It’s a condition that I learned about when researching ‘why I can’t lose belly fat’ online. And the advice? To reduce exercise intensity and take more rest…..even to eat more food! How ridiculous that seemed to me at the time with all my fixed opinions about how I should lose weight. It went against everything I thought I knew. Oestrogen becomes dominant when the other hormones are reduced due to lack of resources in the body, and this leads to all the symptoms I was experiencing, including weight gain around the middle. The only way to fix that was to stop the pushing, restriction and stress, to nurture and nourish yourself with whole foods and to allow the body time and space to restore its balance. Yes it sounds simple but when you're battling against years of conditioning, behaviour and habit you certainly come up against resistance. However it is possible. I've done it so you can too.

It wasn’t until deep into my recovery journey that I allowed myself to witness and learn the true value of rest, the importance of nourishing my body and how to step out of the masculine energy I was in that kept driving me to do more and resist stillness. I learned to balance myself between the masculine and feminine energy in my body, finally getting out of my conditioned and restrictive mindset and into my body’s ancient wisdom. This is why I am so dedicated to sharing these experiences with my clients and why I focus on creating a holistic offering which gives them the best possible chance of change. It’s why I place such importance on the psychological aspects of our relationship with food and our bodies as well as guidance on what to eat for optimal health and energy. Health is a holistic and ongoing journey that is deeply satisfying when you know what works best for your body. I now live in a much more balanced way, listening to my body’s cues, taking time out for rest and as a result, feeling in the best health of my life. 

This is what I want for you too. I couldn’t have got to where I am now without help, support and guidance along the way, without educating myself or without challenges, difficult times and minor breakdowns, but all was necessary to break through my own conditioning, to grow, and to become better at being human. My therapist once said to me that I can only help others when I’m at a place of health in my own relationship with my body and food, and I can safely say that I’m there, living that everyday and I hope a role model for others to see what is possible. I now get to help others to overcome their food demons and body struggles to find optimal health and food freedom. It's honestly the best place to reach and it is possible for you too. All you have to do is take a baby step, whether that's talking to a friend, finding a professional to help you, or committing to changing one thing. It's a step in the right direction. You’ve got this.