As we age, it becomes harder to lose fat whether by diets or exercise. Most of the time, we gain weight around our midsection and it can be very difficult to lose this fat. You may have noticed yourself developing a beer belly when you never touch the stuff; you are probably beginning to understand belly fat. This is where fat cells will typically settle in your body.

It is part of the body’s natural defense mechanism against famine-to store belly fat. In modern times, our metabolism has not changed to tell it that it is alright to get rid of that belly fat, we don’t need the fat stores to fight famine, and we can run to the ice cream stand or a fast food restaurant if we need belly fat storage.

What happens when we attempt to lose fat through a diet, our body interprets this as a sign that we are experiencing a famine, meaning that your body will try to hold on to as much of the food energy as it can. It stores this energy in the form of fat. The key is to trick your metabolism by eating a variety of foods so that your body will not think that you are starving.

When you are exceptionally busy or stressed, you may not eat much – but you can still gain weight. This as a result of the metabolism thinking you are experiencing a famine, as well as the effects of Cortisol, an enzyme which is responsible for among other things, storing belly fat.

Many diets do not give the brain enough variety, and it will decrease the fat burning hormones and metabolism to meet the calorie intake. So, if you drop from 2,500 calories a day, to 1,000, your metabolism will drop from burning 2,500 calories to 1,000 and your weight will plateau. If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, then you need to eat a variety of foods, changing every couple days, since it will take a couple days for your body’s metabolism to catch up.

To lose fat by dieting, you may have to “fool” the brain and fat hormones into thinking that it will continue to receive enough calories to fuel the metabolism and it is alright to burn excess fat from fat storage when needed, causing you to lose belly fat.

When dieting to lose fat, you need to balance your fat burning hormone levels and your metabolism by eating the right amount of nutritional and fat burning calories. This will let you lose belly fat even while eating a lower calorie diet. Since your body will only use stored fat after burning what you are taking in, you will have to have a lower caloric intake while keeping your metabolism high.

Once you understand belly fat, it is easy to lose those excess pounds. You just need to eat a varied diet at frequent intervals to keep your metabolism burning off fat; the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet does just that and is highly recommended at the link below.