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Copyright © 2017 Metabolic Living

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of the author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative materials on the
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THE LINK BETWEEN
ABDOMINAL FAT, HORMONE HEALTH
AND APPEARANCE
The other day a patient of mine asked me: “I hear people constantly talking about how women
store fat in the lower body, and men store fat in the stomach. But I don’t store fat like the typical
woman. I have all this fat around my middle, but my legs are still in pretty good shape. What does
this mean? Why do I store fat this way?”
I have been asked a variation of this exact question at almost every talk or lecture I give on female
fat loss. Many women are confused about why they are gaining fat around their middle, and they
should be. After all, the typical fat distribution for women is to store more in the bust, hips, butt,
and thighs and less in the waist.
This is why women have that beautiful hourglass shape. Many are not aware of this, but research
shows that across cultures both males and females prefer this particular shape when it comes to
the female form. Men and women prefer this shape regardless of size. In fact, the hourglass shape
seems to be more important when it comes to attractiveness than thinness.
Which brings up an interesting point about body image—something I don’t think is discussed
enough in the health and weight loss literature. I happen to think women of all sizes and shapes
are beautiful, and we need to talk about this more in health and fitness. Sometimes I think all we
are doing is making people neurotic when we talk about body change.
Discussing “fat loss” often gets misinterpreted as saying women “should” look a certain way. Nothing
could be further from the truth. Beauty—to me anyway—goes far beyond a particular look or shape.
But excess fat, especially around your belly, has health implications that should not be ignored.
This is especially true of visceral abdominal fat—not the stuff that you can pinch, but the fat inside,
around your organs and under your abdominal muscles. This type of fat releases inflammatory
compounds that have many downstream health consequences, and is associated with an increased
risk of metabolic diseases like heart disease, type II diabetes, and even cancer.

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This means burning belly fat can make you
healthier, and get you closer to that hourglass
shape at the same time. In fact, research has even
pinpointed the exact proportions that are preferred
by men and women: a waist-to-hip ratio of between CALCULATING
0.7 and 0.8, and a waist-to-chest ratio also between YOUR WAIST-TO-HIP AND
0.7 and 0.8. Depending on the woman, this would WAIST-TO-CHEST RATIO
mean the perfect female proportions would be So how are you doing with your
something like 36:26:36 (chest:waist:hips). hourglass shape? It’s actually pretty
Women of all sizes are considered more attractive easy to find out.
at these proportions. They could be smaller, larger, Grab a tape measure and take three
taller, or shorter. The relative proportions of waist measurements:
to chest and hips dominates the attractiveness Hips—Start at one hip and wrap
factor for females—NOT size.1 An interesting thing the tape measure around your rear,
about the client I mentioned above is that she is not around the other hip, and back to
fat by anyone’s standard. In fact, she is underweight where you started. Make sure the
tape is over the largest part of your
compared to the average. If it were not for the
buttocks. Because making sure the
fact that I know her measurements, I would have tape is level back there can be hard, try
probably dismissed her observation as another to do it in front of a mirror.
example of poor body image.
Waist—Place the measuring tape
Another interesting fact about the waist-to-hip about a 1/2 inch ABOVE your
ratio is that when it rises much above 0.8 this is bellybutton (at the narrowest part
an indication that your hormones are changing. of your waist) to measure around
Menopausal women will tell you this firsthand. They your torso. Don’t suck in your belly as
that will throw things off. Make sure
may not gain weight, but their proportions change.
to exhale and then measure before
This is the influence of estrogen and progesterone. inhaling again.
As estrogen/progesterone fall, and testosterone/ Chest/Bust—Wrap the measuring tape
cortisol/insulin rise, you gain more fat around the around your chest across the nipples.
middle and less in other areas. You’ll learn why in a Be sure to keep the tape parallel to the
moment. floor.

Most importantly, research has shown that a higher Your waist-to-hip ratio = waist/hips. So
if your waist is 26” and your hips are
waist-to-hip ratio is associated with a greater risk
36” your ratio is 0.7.
of health problems. This is because a higher waist-
to-hip ratio means more visceral belly fat, more Your waist-to-chest ratio = waist/chest.
So, same as above if your waist is 26”
inflammation, and all of the negative metabolic
and your chest is 36” your ratio is 0.7.
consequences that come with it.

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So attacking female belly fat is crucial, not just because it will make you look better, but because it
will make you healthier. An improved hourglass figure is just a nice side effect. J

HOW FAT IS BURNED

To know how to attack belly fat, you need to know a little bit about how fat is burned in the first
place. So let’s review the fat burning process.
In order for fat to be lost from a particular area three things need to occur:
1. Fat needs to be released from a fat cell (this process of fat breakdown and release is called
“lipolysis”).
2. Fat needs to be carried to another cell through the blood stream (poor blood flow to an
area means slow fat loss from an area).
3. Fat needs to enter another cell to be burned (this process of fat actually being burned is
called “lipid oxidation”).
It is important to note here that just because fat is broken down and released (lipolysis), does not
automatically mean it will find its way to another cell and ultimately be burned (lipid oxidation). It
could be restored, and this is often the case in people who are very insulin-resistant.

WHY IS SOME FAT STUBBORN?

Unfortunately, some fat (like belly fat) is very difficult to burn. How could this be? To understand
stubborn fat we need to cover some basics of biochemistry. This discussion is a bit technical, but
stick with it. Understanding how to burn off belly fat is worth it.
Fat enters or leaves fat cells mainly due to the activity of two enzymes: lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which
acts to store fat, and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), which acts to release it. Notice the name of the
major fat-releasing enzyme? It’s called “hormone-sensitive lipase” and not “calorie-sensitive lipase”.
That’s important. Hormones, not a reduction in calories, stimulate the release of fat.
HSL releases fat due to the signaling of a compound called cyclic AMP. And this is impacted by the
activity of hormone receptors in fat tissue called adrenergic receptors (AR).
There are two type of adrenergic receptors: alpha and beta. The alpha receptors slow fat release
and beta receptors speed fat release. To keep this straight in your head think “A” for “anti-burn”
and “B” for “burn”.
In addition to having a direct impact on fat release, these receptors also impact blood flow. More
alpha receptors mean less blood flow to an area, and more beta receptors mean greater blood
flow.

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Remember, the amount of blood flow is important, because fat needs to released from a fat cell
and to move through the blood stream to get to another cell where it will be burned up. Lower
blood flow means slower fat loss.
Let’s dig into what all of this means for belly fat specifically.

TWO TYPES OF BELLY FAT

As mentioned earlier, you actually have two types of belly fat: subcutaneous belly fat and visceral
abdominal fat. Visceral abdominal fat has more beta adrenergic receptors and therefore better
blood flow. That’s good news because it means that visceral belly fat is very responsive to diet and
the kind of exercise I will tell you about below.
Subcutaneous fat has more alpha adrenergic receptors. This means fat is released more slowly, and
since there is less blood flow, it is harder for it to be swept away when it is released. That means
subcutaneous belly fat can be very difficult to burn.
So there is good news and bad news here. If you have more visceral abdominal fat, you will get
more results more quickly. But once that’s burned off, the subcutaneous fat—that inch or two you
can pinch over your waistline—can be more of a challenge to get rid of.
The good news is that both kinds of fat can be burned, and hormonal balance is crucial to doing so.

FEMALE BELLY FAT AND HORMONES

There are a few hormones we need to talk about related to belly fat in women. And before the
calorie zealots get in an uproar, I am not saying calories don’t matter. What I am saying is that it is
the hormonal situation that determines where fat is stored, and belly fat is no different.
To lose fat you need both a caloric deficit and hormonal balance. To lose stubborn fat, particularly
stubborn belly fat, you need to understand the hormones involved. In women those hormones are
insulin, cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Plus the major fat-burning hormones,
the catecholamines.
Certain hormones have a very straightforward impact on fat gain or loss. For example, Insulin
is a fat storing hormone because it increases the activity of LPL (your fat storing enzyme) and
suppresses HSL (your fat releasing enzyme). Insulin also impairs the normal function of beta
receptors, which is another form of HSL inhibition. This means insulin lowers HSL activity directly
and indirectly via beta receptor disruption.
Catecholamines—adrenaline and noradrenaline to our UK/European friends and epinephrine
and norepinephrine to us Americans—speed fat release when they bind beta receptors, which
increases HSL activity. But they can also slow fat release when they bind alpha receptors. This is

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one of the reasons stubborn fat, which has a higher concentration of alpha receptors, can be so
slow to respond.
Other hormones have more complex and overlapping activity. Estrogen seems to increase both the
number AND activity of alpha adrenergic receptors. The typical female fat distribution—where fat
is stored in the lower body—is primarily due to the impact of estrogen (the subcutaneous fat and
especially the lower body subcutaneous fat of women is richer in estrogen receptors).
This means that if you have a lot of belly fat, it could be an indication that your estrogen levels are
out of balance.
The thing to understand about hormones is that they never work in isolation. In other words, it
is wrong to think about the action of a single hormone, because hormones behave differently
depending on the “hormonal social environment” they find themselves in. For example, insulin
and cortisol “socializing with” high testosterone and low estrogen and/or progesterone have a
unique outcome that make women more likely to store belly fat.
So let’s briefly discuss what each of the key hormonal belly fat influencers do:
• Insulin is a fat-storing hormone. It increases the activity of LPL, reduces the activity of HSL,
and impairs the normal operation of beta receptors. Too much insulin around for too long
means more fat overall.
• Cortisol is associated with stress, and more stress-reactive women release more cortisol and
have higher amounts of belly fat whether they are thin or overweight. We will talk about
this in more detail in a moment.
• Catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) are released during intense exercise and
have a strong fat-burning effect on visceral belly fat (deep stomach fat), and a weaker fat-
burning impact on subcutaneous belly fat. This is because subcutaneous belly fat has more
anti-fat burning alpha adrenergic receptors while visceral fat has more fat-burning beta re-
ceptors.
• Estrogen is largely responsible for how fat is distributed on women. It makes you more in-
sulin sensitive, which means excess calories are less likely to be stored as belly fat. When
enough estrogen is around it is more likely that a calorie deficit results in fat loss than mus-
cle loss. Estrogen balance is critically important.
• Progesterone has an indirect influence on belly fat due to its relationship to cortisol. It op-
poses the fat-storing action that cortisol has on the belly, meaning that it protects you from
belly fat gain even in times of stress.
• The testosterone-to-estrogen ratio is critical for women. Women with higher testosterone
levels, like those with PCOS, have thicker waists.2

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Now that you understand a little about how your hormones work, let’s take a look at how women
pack on belly fat and how they can burn it off.

THE FEMALE BELLY FAT FORMULA

The female formula for belly fat looks something like this:
[(Insulin + Cortisol) x Testosterone] – Estrogen= Belly Fat
Which means: Insulin and cortisol combined with excess testosterone and low estrogen equals
belly fat.
To make this more practical, you can further translate this equation to:
(Fat + Sugar or Starch) x Stress = Fat Belly
Think about what that means for a moment. There are two factors you need to control to get rid of
belly fat. Stress is the big one—it’s the multiplier here. The other is managing your fat and starch
intake. Starch is especially important, because it has the greatest impact on the hormone insulin.
But fat is crucial too (because it has lots of calories).
Foods that combine fat and sugar are a complete disaster because they have the greatest number
of calories and the most negative impact on your fat-storing hormones.
When stress is added to a diet heavy in these foods, you are in for big trouble. Stress releases
cortisol and cortisol added to insulin is the most problematic hormonal combination for belly fat.
When stress becomes chronic or extreme in a female, the hypothalamus and pituitary—the
command and control centers of your hormones—become “irritated” (for lack of a better word)
and you get downstream effects on thyroid, adrenal, and ovarian hormone production. Chronic
stress in women leads to increased testosterone and lower estrogen and progesterone. This leads
to further problems with fat gain, and a downward spiral of weight and health problems.
Stress also increases hunger, can lead to constant cravings, and sets you up for a physiology that is
more likely to lose muscle. Ultimately it can lead to weight-loss resistance, not a situation you want
to find yourself in if you are reading this report.

OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERWEIGHT WOMEN BOTH

STRUGGLE WITH BELLY FAT
Here is the final thing I want you to understand. Bigger bellies (i.e. higher waist-to-hip ratios) are
found in both thin women and overweight women. I took a picture right out of a recent study on
this issue, so you can see what I mean by this.3

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This drives home the point that belly
fat is not a simple matter of gaining
HORMONES MATTER MORE WHEN IT
or losing fat. Calories matter, but
COMES TO WHERE WE STORE FAT AND
hormones matter more when it comes
to where we store fat and how to
HOW TO ATTACK STUBBORN AREAS
attack stubborn areas of body fat OF BODY FAT UNIQUE TO US.
unique to us.

STRESS IS THE KEY FACTOR IN BELLY FAT

If you are a woman doing everything right and still struggling with female belly fat—especially if you
are a thin woman suffering from belly fat—you need to understand that the primary issue for you is
stress management. It’s NOT too many calories. It’s NOT too many carbs. It’s NOT because you are
not doing enough exercise. It is stress!!!
In fact, the dieting mentality of eat less and exercise more is exactly the wrong approach to take to
attack stubborn female belly fat. This simply makes
the physiological stress greater, and there is much
evidence that suggests dieting may actually be
making your fat parts (i.e. your belly) fatter.4
By the way, when I use the term “stress” it is
important you understand what I mean. For some
reason we equate stress with emotional upset.
So we think that if we do not feel anxious or
depressed we are not stressed. This is a dangerous
misconception to have when it comes to belly fat.
Let’s take a mother who just gave birth to her
first child. She may well be happy, elated, and in
awe. This may be one of the happiest and most
incredible moments of her life. Is she stressed?
Probably more than anyone else on the planet!
She is sleep-deprived (stress). She is nutritionally
depleted from growing a baby and supplying the
baby with milk (stress). She has a whole new life
that is impossible to be prepared for (stress).
This is just one example that shows that you can
be as happy as can be, yet stressed to the max.

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Over-exercising, chronic and extreme dieting, worries about body image, work stress, relationship
tension, and sleep deprivation are all forms of stress.
What we know conclusively from women suffering from stubborn belly fat is that they are more
stress reactive and less able to adapt to stress than women without it.5 In other words, female
belly fat is the result of stress above all else. For a woman suffering from stubborn belly fat she
can’t get rid of, another hour in bed may be a better strategy than another hour on the treadmill.

5 STEPS TO BURN STUBBORN FEMALE BELLY FAT

Remember that female fat belly formula is:
(Fat + Sugar/Starch) x Stress = Fat Belly
This means reducing stress is the most important thing you can do to burn belly fat. So prioritize
rest and recovery. I like to call these “R&R workouts” because for many, R&R takes every bit as
much discipline as exercising.
Step 1: Relax! THIS MEANS REDUCING STRESS
I want you to do at least three R&R IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
workouts per week, which lower YOU CAN DO TO BURN
cortisol and help re-balance estrogen BELLY FAT.
and testosterone. Preferably these
will last at least an hour and include
things like a massage, spa time, sauna
therapy, hot baths, sex/physical affection, time with pets, leisure walking (not power walking),
restorative yoga (not power yoga), tai chi, naps, and meditation. Anything that relaxes you and
calms down your overall physiology.
Schedule these R&R workouts like you would your exercise routines. Put them in your calendar.
Make it happen.
Step 2: Walk
Walking is one of the healthiest things you can do, and it is one of the few physical activities that
lowers cortisol if you do it in a leisurely way. What is leisure walking? A slow walk—3.0 or less on a
treadmill. It should feel relaxing and give you time to take in the scenery, which lowers cortisol further.
Shoot for 10,000 steps a day.
Step 3: Prioritize Sleep
You will have to make a choice about whether your late night TV habit is more important than a
flat tummy, because sleep deprivation is a huge issue for belly fat. If you can’t sleep, then nap. If

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you can’t nap, then meditate. If you can’t do any of that, then simplify your life so that you can.
Stress management has to be made a priority.
Step 4: Eat Less and Exercise Less or Eat More and Exercise More
Yep, you read that right. Eating less and exercising more is an incredible stressor to your body. A
better approach is to either eat less and exercise less OR eat more and exercise more (both can
create the environment for fat loss: a caloric deficit and hormonal balance). You will likely find the
best results with an eat less, exercise less approach. Here’s what to do…
I hesitate to give you a nutrition plan to follow, because you will likely follow it to a T and forget
that it is not about following a diet, it is about creating the diet perfect for you. But I will do it
anyway……reluctantly.
Try the 3-2-1 Diet. This means you eat three meals a day, two of which contain only protein and
veggies (or you can do a shake), and one (preferably in the evening) that will contain a small
portion of starch. This is the starting point for the diet program in Metabolic Renewal, and it’s a
great place for you to start as well. Details on how to tailor this diet to your specific needs are
outlined in The Metabolic Renewal Roadmap.
For exercise, just do the Metabolic Renewal workouts three times per week. That’s it. No more is
needed for most women. Do NOT overdo exercise. It will stress out your body and cause you to
accumulate belly fat. In fact, the reason I designed these exercise routines the way I did is to help
you burn fat effectively without stressing out your body. Here’s how that works.
Intense exercise releases a burst of catecholamines. These powerful fat-burning hormones increase
HSL activity and stimulate fat loss when they bind to beta receptors. Remember, your deep visceral
belly fat has lots of these beta receptors. That means these routines attack that fat in a very
effective way.
But, because the routines are short, they don’t stress out your body too much. That means cortisol
doesn’t get or stay too high for too long. Take a nice relaxing walk after your workout is over and
you reduce stress even more. The outcome: You get the best of both worlds—the intense fat-
burning effectives of the catecholamines without too much damaging effect from cortisol.
Step 5: Find Your Carbohydrate Tipping Point
Don’t go too low-calorie, too low-carb, or too low-fat. Any type of short, extreme, or continuous
chronic dieting is a stress. Don’t do it. Find balance in your nutrition. One very useful thing you can
do is find your carbohydrate tipping point.
A lot of people avoid carbohydrates because they have heard that they make you fat. This is not
true. The trick is to get enough but not too much, and to eat them during times when they may
have more benefit.

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One of the reasons the body releases stress hormones is to help release stored sugar so it can be used.
By giving your body more complex carbohydrates preemptively we can help reduce some stress.
Begin by having your carbohydrates in and around the times you feel most unbalanced and not at
any other times. They will be most useful toward the end of the day.
Here’s the rule I want you to follow. I call it the “half-in-half rule”, and it will easily begin to get you
closer to a level of blood sugar that will be less stressful for you:
• I want you to consume half of the amount of carbohydrates you are currently eating, and
only eat them in the second half of the day (i.e. after 3 p.m.), especially at night.
• If you are already cutting carbs (<100 g per day), then I want you to double the amount of
carbs you are eating and eat them in the second half of the day (after 3 p.m.).
There’s no need for stressing about measuring everything precisely. Just use this rule of thumb:
each bite of starch (about the size of a tablespoon) is around 10 g of carbohydrate. So 100 g of
carbohydrate would be 10 bites of starch in a day.
One final trick. Stress is a very tricky thing and can be wreaking havoc on your metabolism without
you knowing it. There are a few supplements that have been shown to help the hypothalamus/
pituitary control center resist stress.  These include curcumin, fish oil (preferably krill oil since it
contains phospholipids), and rhodiola.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right?
Simple is not always easy though. That’s because the human brain wants to complicate stuff. We
think, very wrongly, that there must be more to it than this.
My work with thousands of women in my clinic—and hundreds of thousands of women online—has
taught me what works and what does not. So I will give you one final warning before I let you go…
You cannot apply the “more is better,” “no pain no gain,” or “go hard or go home” mentalities to
losing belly fat. They will fail you every single time.
Keep it simple. Practice the tools I just gave you, and over time, you will watch your belly fat
disappear. While everyone else is running around like crazy trying every new-fangled diet and
exercise plan and gadget, you can simply practice the simple science-based steps I have outlined
for you here.
And remember this: practice makes progress. Easy is earned. I can’t wait to hear about your
results.
To your next level,
Jade

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REFERENCES
1. Weeden, Jason, and John Sabini. “Physical attractiveness and health in Western societies: a
review.” Psychological bulletin 131.5 (2005): 635.
2. Janssen, Imke, et al. “Testosterone and visceral fat in midlife women: the Study of Women’s
Health Across the Nation (SWAN) fat patterning study.” Obesity 18.3 (2010): 604-610.
3. Epel, Elissa S., et al. “Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently
greater among women with central fat.” Psychosomatic medicine 62.5 (2000): 623-632.
4. Dulloo, Abdul G., Jean Jacquet, and Jean-Pierre Montani. “How dieting makes some fatter:
from a pEerspective of human body composition autoregulation.” Proceedings of the Nutrition
Society 71.3 (2012): 379-389.
5. Epel, Elissa S., et al. “Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently
greater among women with central fat.” Psychosomatic medicine 62.5 (2000): 623-632.

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