When I eat too many bananas my belly becomes a massive mess of belly fat. True or False?
False!
Thanks to the Internet bananas are now believed to be the #1 enemy of a flat stomach. It’s absolutely pure nonsense. Many things are responsible for belly fat, but bananas aren’t responsible.
Things that do cause belly fat are:
Genetics. You were born with a set of specific directions that tell your body how to store fat. Some people were born to store more fat on their bellies. Some people were born to carry fat in other places such as hips, thighs, rear ends, cheeks and chins. Genetics can cause fat to be stored in certain places making one area of your body appear to be overweight, even though your BMI says you’re not and you there is no excess fat anywhere else on your body. Don’t blame bananas for that!
Excess Calories. When you eat more calories on a regular basis than your body is burning, your body will store those extra calories as body fat. Where the body fat is stored depends on your genetics. It will go where your genes dictate. Excess calories and stored body fat can come from any food including bananas. Considering however that a medium banana has about 120 calories and a 1/2 cup (that is a scoop of ice cream about the size of half of a tennis ball) serving of ice cream can have as many as 380 calories, it’s safe to say that bananas aren’t a major source of calories in most people’s diet.
Things you can do to reduce belly fat:
- Snack on bananas, not ice cream! Ice cream is a food that is best eaten as dessert after you already have eaten a meal that provides essential nutrients and has satisfied your hunger. Bananas are a good snack because they do provide a lot of essential nutrients for relatively few calories and they can keep hunger at bay until it’s time for your next meal.
- Sit less. Try to get up and walk for five minutes for every hour of sitting.
- Carry heavy things. Carrying heavy things builds and tones muscles. Muscles burn more calories even at rest. Burning more calories means that there are fewer calories available to be converted into fat and stored on your belly.
Bananas won’t make your belly fat, but too many calories and a sedentary lifestyle might!