Why your stomach will get big

It seems the article on having a big abdomen and a large waist has suddenly made plenty of people aware of the feature on their bodies. Further than that, many are very concerned that there are health implications of having it. We have been inundated with questions upon queries about how to reduce the size of the abdomen and reverse its harmful health implications. As a result, the title of this week’s essay has been changed from its original, which was the way we now live to what you can see above. It is our hope that the strong message intended for the reading public can still be made relevant. A lot of the time, of course, the kind of weight gain that shows in the waist and abdomen takes place slowly over time.

People will often become aware when others refer to their enlarging waist line or when they look some day in the mirror and realise that they have attained some new dimensions that are evident in the pot belly they have developed. The developments take place like a millipede in motion; slowly and almost imperceptibly. We wake up in the morning after a brief sleep during the night often between 12 midnight and 5am or even less. We then take a quick shower and head for the office. We may drive or be driven; the journey is motorised anyway. Once in the office, there is little time for proper food and so we make do with some snacks. Often, it is no more than some minerals or soda and biscuits. It may also be some pastry like cake, bread or meat-pie. For the more affluent folks, it is often a cup of tea or coffee and some toast bread or a hamburger. Sometimes, it is something more elaborate. At any rate, some high energy, high calorie meal is taken and it is accompanied with lots of sugar and other sweeteners. All the time, the person is sitting in their comfortable chair and simply reading, writing or attending various meetings. During those meetings, more snacks are served similar to what they have taken for breakfast.

Some people would have made a corner of their office a miniature extension of their kitchen at home and are thus able to make different types of food right in the office. Tea is available and so is pap, custard, oats and even eba. It is the habit of the senior staff to send out their aides to get them food from the eateries around the office. Those who do not have such aides to send would go out on their own to an eatery or a buka where any of such foods can be purchased. Afterwards, they return to their offices where there is more sitting and working and perhaps some time spent on social media using the official desktop computer. When the office closes for the day, they drive or are driven to their homes where more food is eaten followed by several hours on an easy chair watching television. This is a nightly habit for many people and can last for several hours before it is time for bed and some more, inadequate sleep.

It is possible as well, that after the regular dinner, some people will still find something to nibble on while watching the television. During these weeks of World Cup, many people are glued to their television sets often for long hours at a time and nothing says they would not be drinking some kind of beverage or binging on cakes and other delicacies. At the same time, the remote control is handy and in use so that there is no inclination even to stand up except there is the need to use the toilet.  What all this means is that we simply pack on the calories which is actually fat. We gain weight around the thighs and the abdomen. We put on layers of fat around the trunk. Women put theirs on around the hips and arms. Everywhere around the body, there is fat. The reason is simple; the above treatise goes to demonstrate how people simply eat but have little or no physical exertion.

The food does not have to be heavy but as long as the calories are additive to what one already has stored there will be consequences in terms of weight. Such weight is not lost by pulling in the tummy to create an appearance of being flat; that is cosmetic and of no import. What is needed is a serious weight reduction programme involving a fundamental change in our lifestyles that should guarantee that whatever calories we burn will exceed what we gain.

However, there are some ways in which some of these challenges can be overcome; the first is to develop a pattern of activity that guarantees an obligatory loss of calories even as we consume food. You should take a walk whenever that is possible rather than drive. It makes a lot more sense though, for such a programme for walking to be regular and deliberate. You would have to walk up to 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day for such an exercise to have meaning. If your status does not allow you do this, there are other avenues to burn off some of the fat; you can swim or ride a bicycle or you can engage in a sport. There are many of these available; table tennis, lawn tennis, squash and badminton to name a handful. When you do so, you would burn calories just as sex might help you burn off as well.

When you are in a high rise building, it is cool to take the elevator but it is healthy to take the staircase. Take the latter and burn some of your excess fat. At meetings in which you are served sweets and the like, do away with them and opt instead for the fruits. When you choose to do the big man stuff indicated above rather than the more difficult ones, you do not only gain weight, you also will get bigger around your middle and acquire deadly fat inside your liver that can cause a large range of health problems. In various ways, we have addressed these issues; the time to embark on the necessary positive change is now.

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