[Lauren_]

Something interesting I've noticed about belly fat. This is just my personal observation of my own body, clearly anecdotal and NOT scientific*, but I'm curious if others have the same experience.

- The fat that is stored behind my abdominal wall (like a beer belly, or a bloated appearance) seems to respond quickly to simple carbs/high glycemic foods, like corn, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, and of course sugars of all kinds.

- My body didn't start storing this behind-the-muscle belly fat until I turned 40. I think the way I process carbs changed somehow.

- The fat that is stored between the muscle and skin of my belly is just like any other fat on my body. It doesn't seem to care what type of calories I eat, only how many.

- I suspect this all has to do with my omentum, the organ that drapes from the stomach like a lacy curtain and stores fat inside the abdominal cavity. I suspect it works differently than our subcutaneous fat tissue. (go to Oprah.com and search for the word 'omentum' if you're not familiar with this thing, she has loads of great info)

- I further suspect it has to do with hormones -- a woman's hormones protect her from enlarging the omentum during childbearing years because it would reduce the space available for pregnancy. As fertility begins to decline, her body might begin to store fat more like a man's (men get beer bellies starting at a much earlier age -- and beer = high glycemic simple carb)

Does all this seem true for you, too? I'm trying to limit my overall calories PLUS really limit the numer of simple-carb calories I take in. It's hard to give those up, they have an addictive quality...



* I read an article in Time magazine that seemed to me to back this up. It said that apple-shaped people lose weight more rapidly on low-carb diets, twice as fast than low-cal dieting. Whereas pear-shaped folk did better on low-cal diets.