We all know that ditching carbs and alcohol can help shift the weight around our middle but did you know there’s plenty of other reasons you may be struggling to get a flat stomach that don’t have anything to do with the food that passes your lips?

Munching on a piece of minty fresh gum makes you swallow too much air, which gets trapped in your digestive system causing pressure, bloating and gas. The same thing can happen if you gulp air when snacking on the run, eating too quickly, talking while eating or drinking from a straw.

People often eat too quickly or on the run especially breakfast or lunch if time is pressing, but it can cause bloating. If you eat on the run, your body is feeling stressed because you are rushing.

The stress response was designed to enable you to either run or fight for your life, during which time digestion of food was unlikely, the natural flow of energy is diverted away from your digestive system to your extremities to give you the energy to run or fight.

Your body literally shuts down your digestive function and food stagnates and ferments, making you feel bloated and often giving you gas.

The main reason some people gather more fat around their middle than others is specifically because of the stress hormone cortisol.

And if you eat something sugary or fatty as a consequence of the post-stress appetite surge, any weight you gain as a result will be around your middle.

The reason fat targets the middle is because it is close to the liver where it can most quickly be converted back into energy if needed.

People who are sleep-deprived have an increased appetite. Inadequate sleep lowers levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, and increases grehlin, a hormone that increases food intake and is thought to play a role in long-term regulation of body weight. All this suggests that sleep deprivation can make weight loss extremely difficult because it causes your body to work against you.

我们都知道，减少摄入碳水化合物和酒精可以帮我们甩掉腰部赘肉，但你也许不知道，为了甩掉小肚腩我们还要和其他很多因素抗争，而这些与饮食毫无关系。

嚼薄荷味口香糖会让你吞下大量空气，这些空气困在你的消化系统里，会产生压力、腹胀和废气。如果你一边小跑一边吃零食、吃得太快、边吃东西边说话，或者用吸管饮水时吞下空气，都会产生类似情况。

人们常常吃得过快或者边忙边吃，特别是在时间紧张的早午饭时，这会让你腹胀。如果你边忙边吃，身体会紧张，因为你在赶时间。

压力反应是一种随时让你准备逃生或者接受挑战的本能反应，而在此期间身体不可能去消化食物，能量的自然流动会从消化系统转移到四肢，让你有能量奔跑或战斗。

你的身体会让消化系统停工，食物在体内滞留发酵，让你感到腹胀，体内也有更多废气要排出。

一些人比其他人腰部赘肉多的主要原因是压力荷尔蒙皮质醇的作用。

如果你因为有压力后食欲增加，而吃了含糖或含脂肪食品，你因此增加的赘肉都会集中在腰部。脂肪容易集中在腰部是因为这里离肝脏近，在需要时可以迅速转化回能量。

缺乏睡眠的人食欲更大。睡眠不充分会降低人体内瘦素的水平，增加胃生长

素。瘦素是一种能够抑制食欲的激素，而胃生长素能增加人体的食物摄入，据称在人体体重的长期调节中发挥着重要作用。这些都表明，缺乏睡眠会让减肥极其困

难，因为这会导致你的身体和你对着干。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【胀气】zhàngqì bloat swell or cause to swell, as with liquid or gas

    【转移】zhuǎnyí divert turn aside from a course or direction