As we get older, it is increasingly difficult to lose fat by dieting. The place where our bodies tend to store this fat is around our midsection - this belly fat can be very difficult to lose. You might have had someone mention to you that you are developing a beer gut when you don’t even drink beer! You are starting to understand belly fat.

Your body has a natural drive to store energy in the form of belly fat to guard you against times of scarcity. Although in western societies, there is rarely if ever a risk of famine, our bodies have not kept pace with the progress of our society. Our bodies are still inclined to accumulate belly fat even when there is no shortage of food.

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.

In times of extreme stress or when you are very busy, you may eat less and still gain weight. This is because your body sees the situation quite differently than you do. Your body thinks you are going through a period of scarcity - and the stress hormone Cortisol also plays a role in encouraging belly fat formation.

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 eliminate fat, you need to trick your fat burning hormones and your brain into believing that you are still taking in enough calories - this will cause your metabolism to go ahead and use the energy stored as fat, which helps you to lose belly fat.

If you are trying to lose fat by dieting, eating nutritional calories, and fat burning calories, several times a day, will cause your body to operate under normal conditions, and your fat hormone levels will be balanced and allow you to lose belly fat with calorie reduction, even in high stress periods. Because the body burns fat from the fat cells, only after it has burned the fat from what is taken in, you will need to take in fewer calories while maintaining 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.