Highlights of the Podcast:
- -The top 3 tips to get rid of your beer belly
- Men want to lose their beer bellies for aesthetic as well as health reasons
- Fat storage around the stomach puts you at risk for serious diseases
- Tip 1: Eat an anti-inflammatory diet
- Tip 2: Decrease the amount of grains, starches, sugar and Omega 6 oils you’re having
- Drink Spanish red wine instead of beer
- Alcohol depresses testosterone
- Tip 3: Remove stressors from your life
- You could be eating foods you’re intolerant to
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to another new episode of the TheDVCC.com podcast. I’m Mark Gray and sitting next to me is Stephen.
Stephen: Hello there!
Mark: Well, it’s a Tuesday. It’s being a bank holiday over here in the UK. Hopefully, you are listening to this if you are in the UK. But I know we do have some American, New Zealander, Australian, and actually, even a Filipino listener. One or maybe we have more. But I hope you’re well. Like I say, it’s Tuesday. It’s been beautiful – well, it was beautiful weather yesterday and bank holiday Monday. Very sunny. We got outside and got some Vitamin D. Made Barbie. I’m very proud of my barbeque. It’s very hot and worked very well. I hope you had a lovely bank holiday. Today, we are going to be talking what, Stephen?
Stephen: Beer bellies.
Mark: Beer bellies, yes. We have a fair few chaps at our centers now, and I enjoy training guys. Obviously, I focus most of my training career on helping ladies lose a lot of body fat, but obviously our background in sports means we’ve kind of dealt with a lot of guys as well in terms of interaction and whatever and it’s always fun to train chaps. And obviously, one of the main issues that men are – the average age of men that come to our centers is about 45, I think. 45 to 55, is that right, Steve?
Stephen: Yes.
Mark: And the main thing that they want to fix or sort is their beer belly. I mean, you’re going to see – obviously, in the summer you kind of notice it a fair bit more, I think, because most people cover up or whatever in the winter, but in the summer – I think that’s why we get so many guys wanting to lose their beer belly towards the summer, because it’s kind of they feel it’s more apparent then.
Stephen: Well, yes. And I think nowadays, it’s actually not just an aesthetic – how do I say that? Aesthetic thing. My teeth are too big, I think. But people realize, I think men realize that if they are storing fat around their stomach, it really does put them at a high risk of things like heart disease and high blood pressure and things like that. So, obviously, from aesthetic points of view, men and people we’ve discussed it with and talk to say they obviously want to lose their stomach fats to be able to fit into better trousers and things like that and feel better. But also, they realize the health implications of actually storing fat around your stomach are massive because literally, it really is a big indicator of things like diabetes and things like that, and I’m sure you’ll know that it really does increase your risk of those diseases if you store your fat around your stomach.
Mark: Yes. I mean, waist to shoulder ratio is a big one because that’s a big indicator of health.
Stephen: Yes. For most people, it definitely is. Yes.
Mark: So, apart from not feeling how you want to feel if you have a beer belly, for living longer and being healthy, it’s massively important that you don’t.
Stephen: Correct. And actually, by having a typical beer belly as well, you’re going to be creating a lot more inflammation in your body. And actually, you’re going to find that your risk of having high cholesterol and things like that is that much higher because you have a much more inflammatory body, and inflammation is one of the biggest causes of disease there is. So yes, it’s really, really important that you, for a man, really specifically, they do really tackle that stomach fat.
Mark: Yes. Exactly. There’s going to be lots of ladies listening to this, and you can take some tips as well. But also, forward it on to your husbands, your boyfriends, your brothers, your fathers, because it will help them and it will only help them either look better, but also, live healthier and be able to do the things they want to do much easier.
Stephen: And actually, none of these tips are not useful for women.
Mark: No.
Stephen: They’re just as healthy for women, but they’re specifically aimed at losing that beer belly type fat. So, we’re now with the top 3, aren’t we?
Mark: Without further ado, the top 3 beer belly-squashing tips. So, probably number one would be eating an – and we actually spoke about inflammation – but eating an anti-inflammatory diet. Now, what does that mean? That basically means that you’re going to be eating a lot more fruits and vegetables as they’re and vegetables, I’m talking about way more vegetables than fruits. So I’m talking about minimal amounts actually really natural ways of reducing inflammation. They’re alkalizing foods. And actually, when I say fruits of maybe an apple a day or some blueberries. No more than that for the fruit.
Most of your fruits and vegetables should come from vegetables – green, leafy vegetables – because they really, really do alkalize you very well. And when we talk about inflammation, so one of the best ways to reduce your risk of having high cholesterol your cholesterol risk or reduce heart disease risk is to really create an alkaline body. So, yes, like I said, vegetables and some fruits. Also, drinking green tea is very good as well as an anti-inflammatory diet, but making sure that you’re eating good quality protein with healthy fats. So, when I say good quality protein, I’m talking about as natural as it comes. So literally…
Stephen: Grass-fed beef.
Mark: Grass-fed beef, chicken breast, wild Alaskan salmon, turkey breast. Naturally occurring. We’re not talking battered, curd or anything like that. We’re literally talking as natural as it comes. Why I can’t – like I used to, when I was younger, like a battered sausage, right? I used to. I don’t, unfortunately, like fish, but I used to like eating a battered sausage. However, I have been put off and I must not have had one for maybe 7, maybe more years. And I have basically – I was a eating a sausage, a battered sausage, and I cut into it and the oil squirted right out of it, and that just completely put me off massively. I can’t even think about having one now.
Stephen: Well, that’s a classic example of a really inflammatory food because of all the bad Omega 6 vegetable oil. When you’re actually heating oil like that, you’re heating it for a while like they do, you’re actually flipping the oil so that actually makes it far worse for you even than it would do if it just came straight out of the bottle.
Mark: Yes. That’s why we always tell people to cook in coconut oil. Because the vegetable oils don’t have a high smoking point. Therefore, they flip their composition. In layman terms, they become even worse and bad for you.
Stephen: After a certain temperature.
Mark: But they become very inflammatory. So yes, the first tip would be to eat a really anti-inflammatory diet, one that really alkalizes your body. Because that is going to be a lot, lot easier on your – or you’re naturally going to lose fat from it, but it’s also going to create a lot more alkalization in your body and reduce the amount of inflammation, which really does decrease your risk of any diseases. All diseases, actually, such as cancers, such as cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, all of those thrive in an acidic environment. So if you’re really doing everything you can to alkalize your body, then actually, you’re going to be going a long way to actually improving your risk or decreasing your risk of disease.
Stephen: Exactly.
Mark: So, that’s the number one tip to get rid of your beer belly. And actually, the next tip – and kind of the thing is these do lead into other things. Like if you did this and you’re a lady, you’d get healthier and you’d lose body fats and the same things, but these are particularly applicable for guys wanting to lose their beer bellies. And the next would be probably to remove grains from your daily intake. So, grains are such things as?
Stephen: Well, things like – well, I would say starches as well. Probably, we’ll lump sugar into there as well. So, you’d say things that are processed, generally, you want to avoid really starchy, processed things, and they tend to actually be a combination of all three. So, they’ll be sugary, starchy and actually be grains as well. So basically, what you’re trying to do is decrease the amount of poor quality carbohydrate you’re having. And so, people kind of really, really get confused about what carbohydrate is because when you’re having green vegetables, you’re having a form of carbohydrate. It is just very fibrous.
So, when you’re having things like pastries and things like that, you are having carbohydrate, but it’s mixed in with sugar, poor hydrogenated fats and wheat and things like that. So, really, if you can decrease the amount of wheat you have daily, that will make a big difference on your stomach fat. If you decrease the amount of sugar you have daily, that will make a big difference on your stomach fat. Really decreasing the amount of poor quality – the amount of vegetable oils you’re having, as in cooked vegetable oils. And actually, when you think of something like you get from the BP service station like a pastry, you’re actually probably having all of those things combined.
Mark: Perfect, perfect.
Stephen: Stick that with a…
Mark: A latte.
Stephen: A latte. And that’s actually a perfect way to put on fat. The caffeine helps you actually store the fat as fat and all the poor quality sugar and everything like that. Really, it’s kind of like a – what’s it called when everything combines together?
Mark: A perfect storm.
Stephen: It’s like a perfect storm for fat storage. So yes, the second tip would probably be to decrease the amount of grains, starches, sugar and Omega 6 type vegetable oils that you’re having. Because, again, every single one of those has a really massive inflammatory power. So, it will increase your risk of high cholesterol because cholesterol will raise in an inflammatory environment to try and decrease that, and it really increases your risk of heart disease and things like that. So in a nugget, they’re not good at all.
Mark: So try and reduce those, and you’ll find that the fat will be going down on your tummy. Your belts will be getting looser.
Stephen: True. Actually, we’re not going to use this as a point, but if someone’s got a beer belly, what should they still drink? If they want to drink alcohol, what should they drink? So I’m guessing beer is probably not the ideal for them.
Mark: Yes. It’s a pretty obvious one, isn’t it? If you want to get rid of your beer belly, don’t drink as much beer. But, for guys I know, like they beer, I personally find disgusting. It was ever since I had an episode. We went out. We were taken out by an older ripper boys when we were at school. We were 15.
Stephen: In the south, didn’t we?
Mark: No. Okay, yes, but we went to an all boys’ school as well. But for the first night out and we went and we were drinking , or they were drinking so we drank with them Foster’s, which is obviously a beer.
Stephen: I remember it perfectly.
Mark: Was it Foster’s or Stella?
Stephen: No, it Foster’s.
Mark: Foster’s. And we were unceremoniously sick on – well, I was sick on the pub door handle.
Stephen: Was it on the door handle?
Mark: Yes. On the door handle. You were sick on the way back out of the car.
Stephen: I was in the garden, or you were in the garden?
Mark: And then we kind of were dumped on our parents’ doorstep. And actually, we didn’t get told off that much because I think they realized that we would never drink that beer again.
Stephen: And we’ve actually never drank beer.
Mark: No, we did. We went to a wedding maybe a month afterwards and Dad was like, “Oh, do you guys…” because I think we were 16 or whatever. You have a drink with your parents obviously just to kind of taste it or whatever, and I had a swig of his beer, and ugh! Never again! Literally, I’ve not drank beer again even at rugby socials where you’d have – because unfortunately, we do have drinking games and things. Even then, we were always allowed to have like alcopops or something. Hooch instead of the beer, which was nice of them but…
Stephen: So what should they drink then?
Mark: Red wine. Spanish red wine.
Stephen: Spanish red wine. Again, because that’s actually heart-healthy. So that will actually be very beneficial. Excuse the noise. We actually just got the window open and a truck just pulled up outside. Oh, it stopped now, which is good. But yes. So Spanish red wine would be ideal because it contains that compound Resveratrol, which is shown to be beneficial. Not in copious amounts though. If you’re looking to lose body fat, particularly around your stomach, a glass a night would be max. No more than a glass of red wine an evening would be ideal. Any more than that, and you are entering the territory. People kind of convince themselves that yes, red wine is good for you in adverts and commerce, so therefore, they can drink as much as they want. But a bottle a night is not going to help you healthwise or losing body fat-wise.
Mark: And it’s obvious, the guys that go out and smash it – 10 pints on a Saturday night – if you reduce that to 6, like I don’t know how you do 10 pints anyway in a night, but if you reduce that to 6, or from 6 to 3, you’re going to get beneficial results, and that’s what you should be doing. Maybe just don’t cut out straight away because you’re not going to be able to. But just reduce it. And then you’ll find that you’re losing fat, especially from your stomach.
Stephen: And actually, one thing to remember is that alcohol depresses testosterone. So as a man, if you’re having a big drinking session, your testosterone is depressed, I think actually for 72 hours. So, you’re kind of almost castrating yourself. And as a man, you want to be as manly as possible, don’t you?
Mark: And the thing with beer bellies is it often comes along man boobs. So that’s the same thing with estrogen and testosterones that a lot of guys are experiencing that they have a beer belly, but they also have a flabby chest because of what they do to their hormones.
Stephen: Correct. And actually, by having a beer belly, which we touched on the fact that your testosterone will be naturally more aromatized to estrogen, but your sex drive and things like that are going to be compromised. Anyone that thinks that’s not the case, that’s actually incorrect. You will have a lower sex drive. You will have a lower virility. Basically, things won’t work quite so well. Blood flow and things like that are not optimal, to put it kindly, when you do have excess fat on your stomach. So, anyone that kids themselves that they’re not doing themselves damage by having fat stored around their stomach as a man is kidding themselves effectively.
Mark: Yes. Exactly. And this kind of goes down to the thing of if you’re a father, you want to be running around and setting a good example to your children. And children know that their father shouldn’t have a beer belly. They see enough movies of action stars who don’t. So you want to be setting a good example because at the end of the day, they’re saying that – actually, there was a really interesting graphic or a picture of – what was it? It was a picture of a young lad, an American boy, in shorts and no top and he had a beer belly and man boobs and he was what? 16 or so. And then, I think it was a picture of – I don’t know if it was Arnold Schwarzenegger or someone who was maybe 30 years as a teen star or whatever and he was in really good shape and they were showing how – they were basically referring to the fact that children are now nowhere near as fit as they should be at a child’s age like they used to be. So it’s getting worse, and this is the reason why.
Stephen: Correct. So yes. What would you say is probably the last or the third probably – well, technique or tip to really reduce your beer belly? I’m going to say it’s stress, isn’t it?
Mark: Right. So you’re talking either handling stress better or eliminating it?
Stephen: I’m talking both really because I don’t think you can eliminate it totally. But if stuff is causing you stress in your life, then obviously, decreasing it is beneficial. But we’re also talking about being able to handle…
Mark: You know what actually? Like I don’t see you now anywhere near as much. Like I cut it down to every week just for these occasions and my stomach has got way better. Like less stress, my stomach’s leaner. So that’s what you have to do. If you have to remove some stressor from your life, you got to do it.
Stephen: I thought it was because you’ve lost muscle. I thought you were looking thinner but…
Mark: No, no, no, no, no.
Stephen: But anyway, yes. So stress is a big cause of stomach fat. So, you could be eating foods that you’re intolerant to. So that’s the thing with beer, it always contains wheat normally, unless you’re getting gluten-free beer, but it’s still not the best. Most chaps in the population are intolerant to wheat and gluten. Therefore, every time they’re drinking beer, not only do they get the detrimental effects of all the alcohol and things like that, the calories and stuff like that, however, you’re producing inflammatory reaction, which means when you have an inflammatory reaction, you raise your stress hormone, Cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that causes you to store fat around your stomach. So every pint of beer will literally be going straight to your stomach because of that. That is one way that you can get stress.
In other ways, you have work stress. What do you do to kind of get rid of that stress? Do you exercise? Exercise is a great way of decreasing that stress. The fitter, healthier, stronger you feel, the more able you are to handle stress. So, you really want to look at what techniques you have. Do you go out at lunch for a walk in the day? Do you read a novel just to kind of finish your day? For example, reading a novel for 30 minutes is a great way to just kind of transition from work mode into home mode. So, there’s lots of different techniques, but it’s basically being aware of whether you do have a lot of stress in your life. A, see if you can decrease it by getting rid of some maybe, if that’s possible. It’s not always possible. B, what techniques can you use to really effectively handle that stress better? And I think some people really kind of convince themselves, “Oh, I can handle stress. I’ve got a friend particularly that I think…” But your body knows your stress, and whether you think in your brain that you’re not stressed at all, your body will know so…
Mark: That he thinks he can handle a stressor really well, doesn’t he? And he probably can. But I don’t think he’s as lean or as muscular as he could be because of it.
Stephen: Oh, he knows. He says he struggles to lose belly fat. Well, that’s because of that stress. Despite the fact that you think mentally, you can handle it, your body does feel the stress in some way. So, it’s being aware of that. You really can’t outrun the stress.
Mark: Oh, you’re thinking of the other friend. I was thinking of the first one. But yes, I get that second one, yes. Definitely. Yes. And he’s been handling stress by ignoring it. But yes, he always does struggle to lose fat from his stomach, even though he’s lean most everywhere else. And he hasn’t got a beer belly of such, but yes, he stores all his fat on his stomach.
Stephen: Yes.
Mark: So yes, that’s a very good tip. And there we go, we have the lorry in the background again. I hope you enjoy that noise. We’re authentic. We’re keeping it real.
Stephen: You’d have thought we should’ve closed the window, wouldn’t you?
Mark: [Laughs]
Stephen: But it’s boiling today, so it’s really, really quite warm.
Mark: Exactly. So, anyway, I think we’ve given quite a few tips there for you chaps. Use them because if you just use one of them to create a habit and then move on to the next one, that is going to be a major way that you can lose fat from your stomach. So, certainly around this time, you want to do it. You want to feel healthy. You’ll live longer and you’ll be fitter and you’ll feel better, in fact. Alright?
Stephen: And you’ll be a lot, lot healthier.
Mark: Yes. Exactly. So, I think that’s us for this week. If you haven’t downloaded Chapter 1 of our new book, then do. Just enter your details in the top of – like the header, or you can click on the right. There’s a little icon that says “Download our new book,” or at the end of this recent podcast on TheDVCC.com, you could actually book in for a body diagnostic consultation with one of us, which would be quite interesting for you, I’m sure, where we can give you some more specific tips for yourself individually. But otherwise, action these ones that we talked about in this podcast, and we will see you next week. Bye-bye!
Stephen: Bye-bye.
