#1 Thing Stopping You From Losing Belly Fat – How To Lose It Effectively | Dr. Mark Hyman

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View Show Notes From This Episode:

Carrying excess weight around your midsection can be frustrating, especially if you maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Yet, millions of people worldwide struggle with their weight,

It is crucial to understand that belly fat is more than just a layer under your clothes. It is an active endocrine organ that secretes pro-inflammatory cytokines throughout the body, contributing to our risk for chronic diseases.

It's important to recognize that this is not a reflection of personal failure. Our modern-day lifestyles are overloaded with stress, environmental toxins, and convenience foods that actively work against us. In today’s ep, we will explore visceral fat (aka belly fat), the factors that contribute to it, and how to address it using the principles of Functional Medicine effectively.

In this episode, I dive into:
Understanding belly fat and obesity (2:51)
The role of diet and lifestyle in the accumulation of belly fat (10:48)
The impact of sleep, alcohol, and stress on weight gain (19:14)
What are obesogens, and how do they make us gain weight? (21:44)
Health risks associated with visceral fat and belly fat (23:05)
Where does conventional medicine miss the mark? (24:14)
Functional medicine's approach to assessing and addressing visceral fat (26:38)
Dietary and lifestyle changes to reduce visceral fat (30:52)

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Dave McKinnon
 

  • @barbaradownie3265 says:

    STRESS TRIGGERS CORTISOL WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO FAT

    • @aminah761 says:

      Yesssss

    • @ReachingPilotHypoxia says:

      yes, and if you’re alive you’re processing stress. also re: fat — whenever i eat sugar it makes everything i eat that day 3x more caloric — that pesky fat storing hormone sugar triggers is why. thus it’s only occasionally enjoyed and only in homemade treats where i control the added sugar.

    • @raykinney9907 says:

      Indoor light pushes cortisol into the early nighttime slow wave sleep, to prevent enough paralysis to switch on repair mechanisms in the body?

  • @davidlist7507 says:

    Sugar is one of the worst foods to eat because it feeds cancer I gave up sugar 15 years ago and eat eggs for my first meal and later only salads and I am 67 now.

    • @Isaac5123 says:

      What is you body composition? I ask this because you don’t eat much protein. How much muscle do you have?

    • @Not2daysatan says:

      ⁠definitely not enough protein to maintain strength

    • @Isaac5123 says:

      @@Not2daysatan absolutely not

    • @ReachingPilotHypoxia says:

      i’m not vegan/vegetarian but some of the strongest power lifters are vegan — Daniel Austin. i will say that i too eat eggs often because they offer 100% bioavailable/bioabsorbable protein and are easy to digest. also a lot of greens offer respectable amounts of protein as well, granted animal proteins do win but the downside is they bring into our system a lot of other undesirable elements. i don’t eat animal protein because of what goes *into* them. IYKYK thanks no thanks.

    • @almaburns6562 says:

      @davidlist. So do you have a belly?

  • @chrismesa647 says:

    “Who would eat a whole 20 oz. steak”

    Hello 👋🏽

  • @TheNazradin says:

    This is a great video of all the talking points. I just wish you had this and incorporated kids into adults into old age a bit more, so I could point people to a resource to explain why them feeding their kids standard american diet affects how much I have to pay towards their later life health care.. Not to mention the behavioral effects of eating ultra processed foods on kids.

  • @queenofthesouth4205 says:

    Thank you Dr. Hyman🎉🎉🎉

  • @nabihanaji1700 says:

    He talks just fine thank you for helping

  • @joeh1687 says:

    Kevin Hall who he cites in the video compared a low carb ketogenic diet to a high carb plant based low fat diet…. the people on the low carb diet lost more weight but the weight loss was from water and muscle mass. The people on the low fat plant based diet lost mostly fat.

    • @kirshens says:

      Totally disagree with your info

    • @x.y.7385 says:

      How do you explain Drs Anthony Chaffee and Shawn Walker ?

    • @sandramorton5510 says:

      The water loss is only within the first few weeks not long range. Muscles are made by protein, keto encourages protein. Keto was developed for Type I diabetes in the early 1900’s, reducing carbs which turn into sugar also reduces weight. If you eat plant based or Keto, it is based on whole foods, which is healthier. It depends on your body, can you afford to fuel your body with sugar (no diabetes/prediabetes) or by fat.

    • @joeh1687 says:

      @@sandramorton5510 We get far more protein than we actually need, improving your diabetes with a diet that is giving you heart disease just doesn’t make much sense.

    • @sandramorton5510 says:

      @@joeh1687 So you understand diabetes causes heart disease? There are current scans to determine if saturated fat is causing plaque, low radiation and can be once a year. As I said before, determine what your body can use as energy effectively and stay current with all the newest scientific literature.

  • @saleemakhtar9412 says:

    I’M A GP . I WANT TO STUDY FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PLEASE GUIDE . A LOT OF MY DOCTOR FRIENDS ARE INTERESTED TOO . IS IT POSSIBLE TO GET THE DEGREE ON LINE ? PLEASE GUIDE . WE FOLLOW YOUR SHOW REGULARLY. THANKS.

  • @billybethel says:

    the cauliflower in my fridge is green. it was grown in Salinas, CA

  • @nursejen1111 says:

    Any thoughts on Berberine supplement? I just bought a bottle but haven’t started taking yet. I’m 53 in perimenopause and I’m 50lbs overweight. I’ve recently changed my lifestyle quite a bit. I’m walking 30-45 min 5 days a week and I’ve cut out most refined sugar and refined carbs although not 100% probably like 80%. I’ve added nuts, greens, plant proteins, chicken fish berries etc..still eating too much sodium though. Cutting out my starbucks iced chai has been the hardest thing to let go of but I’m determined to lose weight🙏

    • @MoM-do7js says:

      You can make your chai ice coffee yourself ! Only cheaper 😂

    • @nursejen1111 says:

      @@MoM-do7js trust me it doesn’t taste anything like the Starbucks version I’ve tried to duplicate it with the sugar and sweet cream foam, no bueno!😭

  • @KJSvitko says:

    Processed food manufacturers need to hear from consumers that less sugar is wanted in their food products.
    Why is there so much sugar in everything, even bread. That’s just crazy
    Email, text, tweet or phone your favorite producer of poison and let them know consumers want less salt, oils and sugars in their products.
    Let their customer service department know that all the extra added salt, oil and sugar is not necessary or desired.

  • @chihaibe69 says:

    Thank you Dr. HYMAN 🙏🙏🙏

  • @troyvan6952 says:

    Big food using the big tobacco playbook….. scary.
    A great book to read about UPF is Ultra Processed People by Dr. Chris Van Tulleken. After reading this, I can’t look at food the same way again.
    Perhaps you could have him on your show Dr. Hyman.
    Knowledge is power.

  • @NoPronoun224 says:

    Great video except for the long list of plants recommended near the end. He also recommends a ketogenic diet, which is typically less than 20 gm carbs/day. Attempting to stay on a ketogenic diet for weight loss and trying to fill your plate with 75% vegetables/fruits is a receipt for macro failure every day, and therefore weight loss failure. But the lead up metabolic science part is spot on, as far as I can tell. Too bad I can’t share this with anyone because its a setup for failure.

  • @warringwomenofzion3427 says:

    But what about those of us who eat NO processed foods, NO sugars, walk 10k steps, sleep 8 hours, eat basically carnivore and STILL have belly fat???

    • @mgn1621 says:

      Stress hormone Cortisol.

    • @thegreenteam9095 says:

      No simple carbs? I would think if you deprive your body sugar, refined carbs, seed oils and eat more protein, and healthy fats, you body must burn the fat for fuel.

    • @chuckleezodiac24 says:

      i know, right? what about them? asking for a friend….

    • @pat-realfoodnanu9050 says:

      This is where I am. According to this, I suppose I am simply eating too much.
      I was losing at 1100 calories plus 12k steps per day and stalled. So I got worried I was not eating enough. So I have slowly upped my calories to around 1500 and am now gaining about 1/2 pounds per month.
      This is all over a period of years since starting whole foods and low carb in 2018. I still feel great but have excess fat at around 47% so definitely not just vanity pounds.

    • @warringwomenofzion3427 says:

      @@pat-realfoodnanu9050 I also have slowly increased my calories because I had gotten kind of low. And since January have put on almost 10 lb. I am going to track macros tightly and see if I can start losing again at as small of a deficit as I can. I was maintaining and slowly gaining at 1800 to 2000. I have dropped down to 15 to 1600 right now. Just this week. I eat basically carnivore and move at least 10 to 12K steps a day. Plus lift weights. It’s the only thing I can think of to change right now. I understand stress has a lot to do with it also. I do my best to manage my stress, with long walks outside, prayer, worship. I’m finally sleeping 8 hours a night so I know it’s not that. I just know my body has plenty of fat to release.

  • @lolitaforsgren6807 says:

    Thanks for info. Dr Hyman,❤️👍

  • @dougjstl1 says:

    Thank you for helping me .i think i speak for the many . thank you

  • @fyrerayne8882 says:

    thanks doc

  • @vernmcdaniel395 says:

    Wow so much great info in such a short video. Thank you!

  • @LindaG-ie6wv says:

    You explain everything so well, thank you ❤

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