Belly Fat

This one hormone has a lot to do with your bellyfat.

"Ugh, I think my hormones are all messed up!" That's the statement I heard from my sister not too long ago.

After I asked her a few questions about what was going on, I proceeded to explain to her that there are no "bad" hormones. They are all there for a good reason.

Problems arise when your hormones get unbalanced, and bad things happen in your body.

There's one particular hormone that's directly responsible for adding unwanted fat around your middle. It's called cortisol and this was my sister's biggest problem.

Your body releases cortisol when you're under stress. It's part of the whole "fight or flight" response. It worked great for our caveman ancestors when they were being chased by a lion. But it isn't so great for us now...

You see, many of us are walking around with high cortisol levels all the time.

It happens thanks to everyday stressors, like a fight with your spouse or a rough day at work.

Even strenuous exercise like jogging can raise your cortisol to sky-high levels.

And these increased cortisol levels could be making you fat.

The kind of fat you're most likely to store from elevated cortisol is called visceral fat - the dangerous bellyfat that's linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels.