Poo - how much, how often, you get the idea!

Time to talk about the unmentionable word – poo!

What’s poo got to do with belly fat I hear you ask!?! Well, it stands to reason that what is in your poo is coming from your body - so, your poo, how often you poo and what your poo is like, impacts a big part of your belly fat.

Let us delve into that a little bit deeper…

There are toxins around called xenoestrogens - they are in the products that we put on our skin, the products we use to clean the house, the products we might use in the garden and even in the candles that we burn. This means, that not all products are as toxic free as we want them to be, so they contribute to your toxic load and is one of the things that is important to belly fat.

Then there is something called the estran cerebellum, and that is your guts’ ability to deal with toxins that it is exposed to.

What can you do to help your gut?

There are a few ways in which to give your gut a helping hand; one is to reduce those toxins so that it does not have to even start to deal with them. You can do this by dotting plants around to naturally purity your air. Use natural personal care items and natural cleaning items, switch to glass from plastic and go organic.

The other thing is to make your gut a friendly area and as healthy as possible. One of the first things I try to get my clients to do is to increase their vegetable intake. If you are already vegan or vegetarian, you may have a wide variety of rainbow plant foods going into your guts, which is great. But if not…

Think about how many vegetable and fruit portions you eat during a week - note that I emphasise vegetables, rather than fruit here…

The standard amount is five or seven vegetable portions a day, so you should be aiming for up to 30 vegetable portions a week - WOW I hear you gasp - 30 vegetable portions a week!

We tend to be fine for around 10 or 12 vegetable portions, particularly if you like vegetables and you include pulses and fruits and beans in this. But obviously, the emphasis is on the vegetable end of the ‘fruit ‘n veg’ requirement, rather than 25 fruits and only five vegetables - mind you, in the UK would be hard pushed to find 25 fruits, wouldn't we?! Fruit is great, but it contains too much sugar to be totally gut friendly.

Think about trying to get a wider range of rainbow plant foods into your body each week, as it really does help your gut stay healthy, and it helps your body cope with the toxins that it is exposed to on a day-to-day basis.

The other thing that is vitally important, is that you drink enough fluid. Two litres a day, if you can because having this healthy gut with all these lovely vegetables going into it, needs a regular bladder too. This will mean that your body is nice and hydrated, helping that poo to come out, and therefore no backlog – excuse the pun!

Basically if you become constipated, not only does your body struggle to get rid of the poo, but it puts pressure on your pelvic floor and nobody needs that in our midlife, and it means that some of the things that your body is trying to get rid of (because poo is waste after all) do not come out - simple as that!

Can menopause cause changes in your bowel habits?

Looking at the way you are eating your vegetables and thinking about whether you are eating enough vegetables is a good place to start. On the gut element of this midlife thing, you may find that the combination of increasing your vegetables means that your calorie count comes down slightly and as a result, and you start to lose a little bit of weight too – win-win.

Calories do matter in the belly fat war - keep thinking of the positive things we can do by putting the good stuff in, and then a little bit of what you fancy as and when – the odd prosecco lunches here and there is fine.

Well, we have really lifted the lid on some of the belly fat issues that you may have noticed, and hopefully have given you some ideas of things that you can do right now, and going forward, to help you get on top of your belly fat.