Belly Fat, Low Carb, And Cortisol

Belly fat, like other fat, reduces through diet and exercise. You may employ low-carbohydrate dieting to reduce body fat levels. Long-term dieting can cause additional stress on your body, which can increase the hormone cortisol. High cortisol levels can lead to muscle wasting and an increased tendency to store fat. Consult a health care professional before beginning any diet or exercise program.

Belly Fat

Belly fat is simply adipose tissue -- energy that is stored as fat. You cannot spot-reduce to remove fat; you lose it from your total energy reserves. Using a combination of exercise, preferentially both resistance training and cardiovascular exercise, and caloric restriction, you can shed unwanted fat. The better you balance your diet and training program, the less muscle you will lose.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a steroidal hormone produced by your adrenal glands. Cortisol functions in response to stress, and will increase blood sugar by the breakdown of stored fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Excess cortisol levels can also suppress the immune system. Excessively high cortisol levels can even lean to a decrease in bone mineral density. Cortisol can also limit your inflammatory response. While at first glance this may seem beneficial, sometimes your joints retain water for a reason, notably to cushion the joint while it is healing.

Low-Carbohydrate Diets

A low-carbohydrate diet allows you to lose body fat via ketosis, or the burning of free-fatty acids as your primary fuel. This is achieved by limiting your non-fibrous carbohydrates and consuming a great deal of fat, often up to 50 or 60 percent of your total calories. Even though you are not eating carbohydrates, you still need to restrict your caloric intake for your diet to be effective, according to a 2006 study published in the "Archives of Internal Medicine."

Combined Effect

A low-carbohydrate diet will make it slightly harder to store fat due to less insulin being generated by your diet. However, long-term low-carbohydrate dieting will also increase cortisol levels, according to a 2007 study published in the "Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism." The effect of eating slightly more protein while using a ketogenic diet may offset the enhanced cortisol response generated by the low-carbohydrate diet and allow you to continue to lose body fat, including belly fat.