Yoga for a Flat Belly
✔ It's tempting to boil weight gain and loss to a simple game of calories in and calories out - and to a certain degree, that's true ! 🤦♀️😉 -. But there's a lot more than that going on inside your body as it gains or loses weight, and scientists are still working to understand all the different factors that affect this complex mechanism.
One of the best-known factors that can influence weight gain is stress🥯🍟🍔🍕, with the so-called "stress hormone" cortisol as the standard bearer. As exercise physiologists at the University of New Mexico explain, "cortisol directly affects fat storage and weight gain in stressed individuals."
As an unfortunate bonus, cortisol can even relocate fat cells deep into the abdomen as visceral fat, which is associated with more health risks than subcutaneous (just under the skin) abdominal fat. That visceral fat can also create the look of a rounder belly, even on otherwise slender individuals.
But there is hope, and it comes in the form of yoga, Tai Chi and other mind-body practices, which the UNM staff notes are often recommended for stress management. Yoga also encourages the mindfulness that supports other self-care practices, such as meditation, eating well and getting enough sleep all of which can help reduce your stress and inhibit your body's stress-induced rush to store fat around your belly.
In this app we added yoga poses that will help you relax and strengthen you core muscles while fighting stress and cortisol hormone 😊✌
