What I Tell My Patients Who Want To Lose Belly Fat: A Hormone Expert Explains

When you gain excess weight, particularly at the waist, your body’s biochemistry spirals downward. You create more inflammation and oxidative stress, and promote even more fat storage. The result is a vicious cycle of hormonal misfires, symptoms, and disease that will drag you down unless you flip the switch.

If you want to burn belly fat, there are 10 key strategies to implement, and most involve food. These are the same strategies that I applied to my own body to cut visceral fat.

Most people have no idea what purslane is. I didn’t either until I discovered my problem with eating excess fructose and how it contributes to fatty liver, among other problems.

So I decided to up my omega-3s, particularly since an omega-3 fatty acid known as docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, seems to reverse the harmful changes to belly fat produced by fructose. In fact, DHA doesn’t just change one or two genes, it pushes an entire block of genes back to normal.

Purslane offers the richest source of omega-3s and melatonin that you can obtain from a green vegetable—mostly alpha linolenic acid (ALA), which can be converted into DHA. One chef calls it a miniature jade plant. I call it a super food, a weed worth eating, because its nutrient density strengthens synapses, or connections in your brain, and enhances memory and learning.

Before my segmented body fat composition test, I was a chronic cardio girl. I would go running for an hour, four times per week. I was stressed and felt victim to time compression: there was no time for other less efficient activities like Pilates or free weights. Then I realized my running was raising my cortisol levels and adding to my belly fat. In fact, my cortisol was three times the normal level in the morning, before my run—so I was like a perpetual high-cortisol machine.

Fructose is the most metabolically hurtful sugar. It goes straight to your liver, where it makes fat and triggers insulin and leptin resistance. Fructose doesn’t tell your brain that you’re satisfied, so you still feel hungry and keep eating. The net result is inflammation, a stressed-out liver, and more visceral fat.

The main culprit for most Americans is excessive amounts of high fructose corn syrup—the Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans consumed an average of about 27 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup in 2014—but I found that I probably have a problem with even higher-fructose fruit such as bananas, dates, and dried apricots.

If you perceive that life is stressful, you’re more likely to store fat, gain weight, and break down muscle. I know you know this, but it’s worth repeating because I certainly need a daily reminder!

Adiponectin is part of a secret conversation between your fat cells and your brain. When levels are low, adiponectin can make you store fat. The more adiponectin you have in your blood, the more flab you burn.