How does a beer belly form? And what can you do about it?
If you like to drink a beer every now and then, you have probably already heard the warning “beware of a beer belly” with a smile. But is it also true that excessive drinking beer effectively saddles you with extra belly fat? Or do we wrongly declare the beer guilty for those swimming rings? Let’s look into it.
You have undoubtedly heard the term ‘beer belly’ often when it comes to a belly. In this case, it is usually about the extra ballast in and around the abdominal area, which is common among avid beer drinkers.
German and Swedish scientists actively sought an answer to the question of whether that extra fat is caused by drinking beer. More than 20,000 people helped them in that experiment to find out whether beer makes your belly increase in girth. The main conclusion? If you drink a lot of beer, you probably need more ribbons to measure your waist after a while.
More than just a beer belly
One caveat needs to be added, though. Not only the waist circumference will increase when you occasionally fly firmly in the beer. In general, it appears that people who drink a lot of alcohol also see their circumference seriously increase in other places. Another popular place to store fat: the hips.
Furthermore, the number on the scale will also be higher in people who drink more and more alcohol more often, compared to those who rarely or never drink. The effect of beer is, therefore, not only limited to the stomach.
Just as it is not the case for other foods or drinks with a high number of calories, which also influence that ‘beer belly’. People with a pronounced (beer) belly are usually just unlucky that their body chooses just that place to accumulate fat, more than in other regions.
Health risks
It is certainly annoying that you lose contact with the bottom of your body with such a bulging belly. Still, all the health risks associated with it are more dangerous than that. More fat in the abdominal area also means an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, erection problems and other health complaints.
This is especially the case with abdominal obesity, where the waist circumference is more than 88 cm in women or more than 102 cm in men. That’s why you better try to keep such a tummy in check. So the message is to enjoy those beers in moderation.
