A few decades ago, a man with pot belly in Nigeria is often erroneously considered wealthy.
In fact, there is a popular way people refer to men with pot belly.
“Big man; big belle”. This axiom, in those days, makes people desire a pot belly like it could actually yield money.
Unfortunately, there is trouble in belly fat that is now manifesting in our age.
But the story I am about to share will make you give this pot belly issue a second thought.
I sat by a friend who could no longer sit straight because his stomach was hindering his movement forward.
He could put his two hands on his stomach like a rail in front of a balcony.
I could not hold back my concerns, so I decided to speak.
“Bros (brother), you need to lose this your pot belly like Nigeria has lost its coin.” I told him.
But he laughed at my expression instead of giving attention to the concern I raised.
I had to come plain, telling him all the things that could happen if he continued to carry extra fat in his stomach.
I wish he listened. He may have extended his life and not coming down with heart attack.
Unfortunately, he left the wife to cater for four children who are barely beginning life.”
Each time I remember this situation, it brings tears to my eyes, because he could have lived.
This is a reason I believe women can help their husbands get rid of pot belly. You will not be a widow in early life by the grace of God.
When it comes to stomach fat, it is of 2 types.
The belly fat accumulated in the lower body (the pear shape) is subcutaneous, while fat in the abdominal area (the apple shape) is largely visceral.
The apple shape is the belly fat that causes more trouble (1).
The visceral fat is the kind of fat that surrounds your organs. Research says this fat raises a man’s risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers (2).
Also Read: Belly Fat: 3 Reasons You Need To Blast It
Furthermore, to know if your husband’s pot belly needs to go down, here is what to do.
Take a tape rule and measure around his midsection at bellybutton-level.
If you get a measure that is more than 40 inches it is too much.
What Makes A Man Get Pot Belly
Basically, when a man’s stomach protrudes, it is often not just a natural occurrence.
It is a function of different things that are mostly centered around lifestyle.
1. Too Much Food
Belly fat could come from the food that you eat.
A simple calculation for this is calories intake versus calories used per day.
For instance if your husband eats 2,000 calories per day and uses only 1,700 calories, the balance of 300 calories stays in the system as fat.
If this is the case, the first thing you need to do is to understand how many calories your husband needs.
Give him food based on what he needs and add more protein and vegetables to his diet. This will help begin to force the body to draw from the excess fat in the stomach.
Replace his juice, beer, fizzy drinks and other foods that are often loaded with so much calories with low-calories food.
Here, in this plate, is the ideal way to feed your husband to ensure that he gets nutrients he needs. Fat and oil should be the smallest part of his meal.
While buying your food items, watch out for those with saturated fat and go for the ones with the lowest value
Trans fat, which is mostly in your cooking oils, is the bad guy. It loads your husband’s system with unwanted fat.
Consciously reduce the amount of oil you add to what you cook or fry.
2. Low Activity Level
Sadly, most persons with pot belly are people who do not engage in enough physical activity in a day.
Most of them do so much of sedentary life.
You need to find a way to make your husband add exercise to his daily plan. Encourage him to engage in between 30 to 60 minutes of exercise daily.
Alternatively, your husband can follow the World health Organization’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise each week.
He should focus on exercises that will burn fat, like jugging, running and other strength building physical activities.
This will help him lose weight.
3. Your Husband Is In His Middle Age
As a man ages, especially in his middle age, his muscle mass declines. Also, his metabolism slows and he burns less calories than he used to.
This is why it is necessary for a man in his middle age to watch what he eats and have a meal plan that matches his age.
As excess calories accumulate in the body it stays in the middle (stomach).
At this age, you should find out what kind of food best suits your husband and give him those.
Cutting down on calories is one thing that works for middle age men.
4. Your Husband’s Gene May Cause Pot Belly
Pot belly runs in the family too. Gene determines where fat accumulates in your body. For some, it may accumulate in their laps or buttocks, while others will just have this pot belly that refuses to go down.
Even when they engage in exercise, the stomach still won’t go away.
Also Read: See How Many Calories You Should Eat Per Day
While gene is a determining factor, with the right diet and exercise, your husband can overcome this genetic influence and have a great body figure.
5. Poor Sleep Pattern
Categorically, when a person sleeps, hunger regulating hormones help you fill full. But being awake at night could make these hormones less effective.
When this happens your body will call for food and when you eat, chances of gaining weight increase.
A study established the relationship between poor sleeping pattern and weight gain (3).
As a woman, do your best to see that your husband goes to bed early. If he returns late from work and needs to eat, give him food that is low in calorie.
Foods that take time to digest should not be part of his evening meal.
6. Check Stress Level
Stress is another reason people get pot belly. Unfortunately, stress triggers the release of a hormone – cortisol that makes a person crave foods that are high in fat and carb (4).
Also, this hormone deposits fat around the organs in the abdomen.
As a woman, there are few things that you can do to help your husband manage stress level.
Here are some of them. Please, read our earlier article on Stress Management: Simple Techniques That Work.
7. Smoking Could Cause Pot Belly
A study found that although smokers do not show significant difference in mean body mass index than those who never smoked, they showed more metabolically adverse fat distributions with increasing smoking amounts (4).
If you would find a way to convince your husband to quit smoking, you would help him lose the pot belly in no time.
Take Away
A woman is the gateway to her husband’s belly. What you add in your meal is what contributes to his pot belly.
For the sake of your husband’s heart, blood sugar level, you should watch what goes into his plate as meal.
This will also help prevent other chronic diseases that go with a pot belly.
You may think it is hard to make your husband exercise if he is not used to doing so.
Try to form an exercise routine and with time, he will join you in exercising.
From experience, we know that when a man’s BMI is higher than the ideal, chances are that the wife has also exceeded her ideal weight.
This is because, other things being equal, they feed from same pot.
For this reason, you can encourage him to exercise when you begin to form the habit of exercising.