I'll be the first to admit that I have a bigger belly than I should have. It's not as big as what some men have, but it's big enough to irritate me. I don't have a "beer gut" as some people like to call it because I don't drink beer regularly. I know what caused it and now it's time for me to get rid of it.

We all know that exercise burns calories. Does it burn the fat your body has accumulated? Not necessarily. If your exercise routine is the same routine every time you exercise, your body will become accustomed to it and it will have little effect. I know this little tidbit of information for a variety of reasons that would take hours to explain. I'll shorten it greatly just by telling you that even though I ran 3 to 5 miles at a time at a minimum of 3 times a week for the last two years of my career in the military, my belly still continued to get bigger.

There are three major causes:

  • As you get older, your metabolism gets more efficient at storing fat. You can eat less and still gain weight.
  • Consumption of trans fats. Consuming trans fats not only makes you gain more weight than with non-trans fats, it causes the fat to collect around your abdomen. It will even cause your other excess fat to redistribute itself to the abdominal area.
  • Consumption of saturated fats. Most foods that contain trans fats also contain saturated fats.

I identified my problem as too much trans fat consumption. What foods contain trans fats? Trans fats are found in vegetable shortenings, some kinds of margarine, and in manufactured baked goods such as cookies, crackers, and snack foods. A major source of trans fat in American diets is fast food fried in oil that's high in trans fats.

Now that I live in the Philippines, I know that my consumption of trans fats has reduced tremendously. I am slowly losing my belly. Rice has a lot of carbohydrates (but I eat a maximum of a cup per day) but contains a low amount of "unsaturated fat" which helps in the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K and carotenes. It took me 10 years to get a large belly and I don't expect it to flatten in less time than that, realistically speaking.

Don't get me wrong. Fat is a major energy source and important for proper growth, development, and maintenance of good health. Younger teens and pre-teens have a much easier time burning all types of fat. As you enter your adult years, you have to restrict your fat intake (as best as you can) to the unsaturated type in order to prevent health problems from occurring.