A beer belly is created by drinking beer. Once in a while. A beer belly can also be caused by excessive eating and too little exercise, but then it should not actually be called a beer belly. Why do sturdy beer drinkers have that bulging belly, is it dangerous and how can you lose weight again or train the belly away?

Beer belly does not exist

Whoever has in mind that a beer belly is a storage of beer, is wrong: the beer belly does not exist. What does exist is fat storage around the abdominal organs. When the area around the abdominal organs is provided with fat, the fat is deposited outwards, causing the abdomen to bulge. Among sturdy beer drinkers, this is known as the beer belly.

Lots of calories in beer

People who drink a lot of beer also consume many useless calories. Useless because beer contains no vitamins. In addition, beer also contains no proteins, making it also useless for cell building. Beer contains a lot of bad carbohydrates that are converted into fat. This fat is stored in the body for worse times. As long as the worse times don’t come, the body keeps storing fat instead of consuming it.

A glass of beer contains around 85 kcal. Whoever drinks ten glasses of beer per day, therefore consumes 850 kcal per day. In addition, beer boosts the appetite: beer makes you eat more chips and nuts and is more likely to be hungry for pizza or fries. In addition, many beer drinkers also place their daily fat floor in the stomach: by working a fatty meal in, the stomach reacts less sensitively to alcohol. In this way, many calories are consumed unnoticed. This is a common problem especially with daily beer drinkers. Because alcohol is addictive, beer drinkers are often not aware of the dangers of beer belly and alcohol consumption. Drinking beer often comes in as well. It starts with one glass during dinner and before you know it you drink more than ten glasses a day. This may seem like an exaggeration, but more and more people are becoming home drinkers. A home drinker drinks more than two glasses of alcohol a day, outside of drinking in a public place such as a cafe.

Beer belly without drinking beer

A beer belly can also occur without drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages. Often wrong eating habits are the cause. Too many wrong fatty foods and sugars are the biggest culprits. In this case we are not talking about a beer belly but a fat belly, overweight or too large a waist circumference. There is no question of a real beer belly. In both cases the waist circumference cannot be called healthy: an increased fat storage around the abdominal organs entails an increased health risk. One must then mainly think of heart problems and vascular disease.

Train away your beer belly

Can you train away a beer belly through exercises? Yes and no. Only abdominal exercises help nothing. The belly really doesn’t get away from that. People will have to adjust their eating habits and / or not to drink beer. In addition, a lot of exercise will have to be done. By consuming more calories than comes in through the diet, the body will use the stored fat. Consideration should be given to the amount of food: eating too little will ensure that the body actually saves even harder fat. A good training in which cardio and strength training are alternated, can ultimately cause the beer belly to disappear. This requires a long breath: often fat first disappears in other places.

Stopping drinking (excessive) alcohol also has other benefits. Alcohol has many nasty properties such as causing stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cirrhosis, damage to the brain, high blood pressure, brain haemorrhage etc. Moderate drinking of alcohol, this means no more than 2 glasses per day, has a beneficial effect against clogging blood vessels . However, this only applies to men over 40 and women over 50 years. Alcohol has no beneficial effect for young people.

During an average body step lesson you step on and off 2000 times. Bodystep is a varied step program, in which movements are combined. This program takes place under the guidance of compelling music.

Bodystep lessons

Bodystep is a group fitness program. The bodystep lessons were developed by Les Mills and have the same course and content throughout the world. An important condition is that “thinking” does not stand in the way of “doing”. That is why the movements are kept simple. The music is stimulating and stimulating. You step on the scooter, off it, over it and back. The movements are performed on music.

Steps
Then of course it is useful to know what a “step” is. A scooter is a two-wheeled vehicle, that’s true. But a scooter is also a height-adjustable board (10-30 cm high) that is used within certain fitness programs.

Who is bodystep for?

Bodystep is accessible to everyone. The combinations and exercises are simple and varied and for the most part consist of repetitions. A beginner can come along well, but there are also opportunities for advanced skiers. An option to increase the level is the use of hand weights.

Body step benefits
Bodystep offers many benefits.
You feel liberated and energetic.
You burn a lot of calories
Your fat burning system is stimulated during the cardio blocks
Your body shape changes: you become slimmer and tighter
Coordination is improved
The firmness of your bones improves
The lung and heart capacity is increased
Your muscles become firmer, resulting in more muscle strength
Improvement of the condition
Improvement of muscle endurance
The upper legs and buttocks in particular are trained

Material bodystep

What exactly do you need to do the body step exercises? The only requirement is a step. Wear sportswear and sturdy sports shoes. If you have a good command of the beginner level, you can consider using small hand weights. This sporty workout offers challenges for everyone!

FItness group lessons
Is bodystep not exactly what you are looking for? No problem. If you go for more challenge, you can also opt for bodyattack group lessons. Bodybalance is a combination of yoga and pilate and helps to balance body in mind. The body pump gives you a muscular body. There are many other options and there is always something that suits you.

The classic forms of fitness consist of ‘step aerobics, cardio training, zumba, spinning, aqua gym and striding’. Every form of fitness has its specific health benefit. In general, fitness is a must if you want to burn a lot of calories in the long term. Fitness can also be fun to do in a group and in that way it is interesting to sharpen up your social life. If you do not yet have experience with fitness, it is very important to start carefully so as not to overload your body immediately.

Fitness: classic forms

Spinning

People install themselves standing or sitting on an exercise bike to cycle to music under the guidance of an instructor. You can also build up resistance through the bicycle, as if it seems that you are cycling on the mountains. The exercises that are done here are: doing short sprints, cycling on a flat road or cycling against resistance. All this in alternation with each other.
Spinning is very good for burning calories and good for the leg muscles, lungs and heart.

Cardio Training

With cardio fitness, a specific training program is adjusted to the measured heart rate. Because the training may not be increased too intensively, people focus on the heartbeat of that person. Based on this, one can then build up the condition and try to lose weight. The fat reserves of the body are used here as fuel.
Cardio training is therefore good for burning fat and calories and for the condition of the lungs.

Step aerobics

Via a typical stepping bench where you alternately get on and off, you mainly focus on the general condition of your lower limbs.
Step aerobics is therefore ideal to improve the condition of your legs, hips and buttocks

Zumba

People here practice fitness to Latin American music in the form of dance and exercise. Alberto ‘Beto’ Perez came up with this form. Zumba means: moving fast and having lots of fun ‘. It is a Colombian-Spanish name.
Zumba is often done by people who want to lose weight quickly, because this sport burns a lot of calories, up to 1000 per hour.

Aqua gym

Here people practice fitness in the water. This can include: steps, jogging, zumba or pilates. Because you exercise in the water, your body weight is seriously reduced. It lowers the risk of overloading muscles and joints.
In addition to the general improvement that it can have for the condition of the body, this sport is therefore definitely recommended for people who have back or joint problems and still wish to exercise.

Striding

This shape is suitable for young and old. You install yourself on a treadmill or bicycle with a suitable slope. This with a varying pace and the size of the steps you have to take.
It is good to train the hips, the calves and the buttocks.

Social occupation

All these forms of fitness are in group and often with nice music in the background. Fitness is not only good for the body, but it is also a pleasant social activity.

Fitness only

You do not have to go to an adapted fitness room to be able to work out. However, you can only do this at home and purchase a suitable device (such as an exercise bike or aerobic scooter). In addition, you can also learn from various DVDs with instructions on how to practice a form of fitness, such as Zumba.