What Belly Fat Says about the Liver

My Story

As a 27 year old woman, I have had belly fat accumulated around my abdomen for years, and was never educated exactly on why the problem was there. Whenever I tried going to the internet to find out, it seemed that the only information out there was targeted towards premenopausal women, and those with the hard, visceral abdominal fat. With a certificate in holistic hormonal health, I knew there had to be a reasoning for my squishy, soft subcutaneous belly fat that I’ve had since I was a kid. Nothing made sense to me and nothing seemed to be working- I wasn’t obese or overweight most of my life and yet no matter how much I dieted or worked out nothing would budge-especially my belly fat. This search has sent me into a journey that I wanted to start documenting in hopes of helping other women do the same. I wanted to understand why young, seemingly healthy women’s bodies felt the need to store subcutaneous belly fat and how we can support our body so it doesn’t need to hold onto it anymore. I had to look into what my subcutaneous belly fat said about my liver health.

Whenever subcutaneous belly fat is brought up, it’s always written off to genetics- however it is heavily known and understood by the scientific community that genetics don’t play as the major deciding factor of the fate of our health. Our genes merely predispose us to certain genetic expressions due to other contributing factors that we do have control over such as environment, stress, toxins, lifestyle, diet and exercise. So why keep the outdated perspective that subcutaneous belly fat is solely due to body constitution? I will not deny that it plays a factor, however I cannot help but notice how the health community seems to be brushing off a major problem that many women struggle with. Our bodies often communicate to us through symptoms, so writing off disproportionately large amounts of belly fat as solely genetic, never seemed right to me, it never felt like a complete answer. I believed there was more to the picture that I was not seeing. 

Understanding the Body's Language

The body is a communication system that is designed for self-healing and optimal health, it is a state it will always come back to naturally; it communicates through symptoms to tell us what exactly is going on inside -- we just have to know how to listen. This is exactly how I choose to see the belly fat I have accumulated throughout the years. There is a reason as to why my body saw it as beneficial to store extra energy reserves on my abdomen, and I am on a journey to find out why. In my search, I have come to find through the years the role that insulin resistance serves in stored body fat (that’s another article), but perhaps the most recent missing piece I’ve come to discover (which is what this article is about), has been the role of the liver. 

Understanding the Liver and Its Importance

The liver is an organ we may hear a lot about but don’t really understand just how vital of a role it plays in our hormonal health, and metabolism. The liver is in constant clean up mode from all the toxins inputed into our bodies and has been described by the incredibly wise holistic health expert, Barabara O’Neil, as the body’s project manager. When we hear ‘toxins’ we often think of environmental toxins, like chemicals, endocrine disruptors, pesticides and what is roaming around free in our sink water; however the list does not end there. Toxins for the liver can also include alcohol (obviously), sugar, refined carbs, and processed food, basically anything seen as fun and enjoyable (don’t worry this doesn’t have to be your truth!). When the liver becomes overworked and overridden with all the work it has to do, it can become sluggish and inflamed. This often happens years before any diagnosis would even be in the picture for more severe liver issues (often why diseases mostly develop later in life for majority of people…it takes time for diseases to form because the body is such a self-healing machine).  Recently, while watching this Dr. Berg video I came to find out that when the liver has any overload of toxins (including glucose) it gets stored as fat. Just as important, the liver will never store fat within itself (if it can help it, this is why fatty liver becomes so serious). The liver tries to keep itself clean so it can continue doing its job and if it were store store fat within itself, it would slow down and even harm the liver. So, its alternative is that it stores the toxins as fat to ‘save them for later’ when it is finally able to process them.

The question then follows: “Where is the closest place for the liver to store all this extra homework?” Yup! The abdomen! The belly is where all of our vital organs are held and is not only a protector of the organs but also can become an extra food bank for backup fuel because it is so easily accessible by these organs. This is the body telling us that 1. Some of our organs are working overtime and are exhausted 2. We need to change some things in our lifestyle in order to set the right stage for our bodies to do what they do best - keeping us healthy. We, as facilitators for our bodies’ healing, need to shift our perspective in addressing the root cause of why our body finds that it needs these energy reserves and why it can’t clean up the toxins we’ve overloaded it with. 

Finding these answers is the first step in really sustainably changing our health because we then shift the weight loss attempts out of frustration with our body and instead hold a compassionate view on how we can best support our body. Our body knows exactly what do to to achieve optimal health, we just need to know which changes to make in order to support it. This is where our health journey crosses into some deep self-transformation because we are required to take a deep, honest look at our lifestyles and reflect on what actions we are taking regularly that feed into stressing our body out. If the liver is able to perform all of its tasks in beautiful health then there is no reason for the liver to store extra fat on the side. If we get the system in a space clean enough so the liver doesn’t have to worry about new waste, then it can begin working through all the fat it saved for later. 

Important Reminder: It is essential to remember that this is a deep dive on just one reason why the body stores belly fat, there can be many reasons and they are often interconnected (as most functions in the body are), take into consideration if your liver could use some extra lovin’ and don’t forget to put this into context. It is not to say that this is the sole reason why every person has belly fat, but shines light on a potential factor. 

How to Support The Liver

There are many ways to support the liver, all depending on the kind of lifestyle you have as most people have different target areas than others. As you are reading through this list, take an open, and honest reflection on your lifestyle and see what your biggest culprits can potentially be. Investigate but don’t overwhelm yourself. Pick 2-3 main ones you can begin to focus on. 

1. Clean house. Literally- go through your cleaning supplies and beauty care (ex. Shampoos, sprays, mists, haircare, makeup). Take a look at what has toxic endocrine disruptors (you’d be surprised by how many, ESPECIALLY if you live in the states). A fast and easy way to do this is to download the Yuka App and scan the product’s barcode as it rates products out of 100 based on the amount of toxins present. And it’s free:)

2. Clean pantry- For many (myself included), my weakness was with all the goodies- sweets, pastries, breads, pasta, even rice, coffee, the list goes on! A ketogenic diet will help put your body in ketosis and get rid of the refined carbs and sweets, check out this video by Dr. Berg explaining more. When I really needed to give extra love to my liver I completely cut out alcohol which made a huge difference in my progress. Most of these foods are addictive, which is why it can be so hard to cut out but all the reason to cut them out! Your body does not need sugar to survive, in today’s world all we do is eat more sugar than we ever need. Sugar and sweeteners, etc. are all hidden everywhere so be on the lookout too if you are someone who buys a lot of packaged foods! Cut out the packaged foods and start with whole foods, you’ll be amazed with how much more you fall in love with food and how amazing it can make you feel. Your liver loves whole foods and can’t stand the processed stuff- it's all chemicals!. We don’t need to add more chemicals to our bodies when we are already so exposed to them on a daily basis. Though we can’t control every chemical we expose ourselves to, at least try to control the ones you can manage. Food and drinks are a great place to start. Take the load off your liver so it can begin working with what your body has already stored for it. 

3. Herbal Loving- supplements are exactly that- supplemental. If you are not changing anything about your lifestyle and just taking supplements and expecting a change, I got bad news for you. That being said just take this section as an extra boost after already integrating your new changes. Herbs that your liver love are milk thistle, dandelion root, and burdock root. I recommend making your own tinctures at home and getting the herbs through Mountain Rose Herb to save money. Although not an herb, I recommend doing a castor oil pack over your liver while you sleep, you can find out more here. 

4. Fasting. The best doctors on this topic are Dr. Berg, and for women specifically- Dr. Mindy Pelz. Fasting helps put your body in a state of autophagy which is basically a state where your body does a deep clean of all the unnecessary and dysfunctional components and recycles them out. The body is able to focus on this decluttering in your body when you’re not adding more tasks for it to do - aka digestion. So much more can be said about fasting but that’s for another article. What does need to be said is that women do need to fast differently than men because our hormones run on a monthly cycle as opposed to daily- so if you are a woman please look into Dr. Mindy more.

5. Are you storing anger? In  traditional Chinese medicine, the liver is related directly to the emotion of anger. Do you suppress anger? Is anger something you judge yourself for having/expressing? Do you express anger in a healthy way? Taking a deeper look at our subconscious emotions and our relationship with anger can begin to release heavy energy that may have been stored in our bodies with no outlet for years. The component of emotions having a direct impact of stress on the body is something that science just seems to be catching up with, but has been ancient knowledge. We are emotional beings, it makes complete sense that emotions, trauma and subconscious suppression takes tolls on us. It’s like the famous saying that emotions are ‘energy-in-motion’, there is no such thing as a bad emotion but the second we suppress feelings we block a healthy flow of what is supposed to just move through us. Blocking flow and stagnating energy is one of the surest ways to sickness. Metaphysical anatomy is a topic I am heavily interested in and always look at what metaphysical meaning lies behind a symptom I am experiencing. I happened to look at liver problems in the book “Metaphysical Anatomy” by Evette Rose and what came up was super relevant for me and I hope there may be something in it for you as well:
   

All of this knowledge are things I am going to be applying in my own journey of tending to my body’s needs and reading its messages for my belly fat. I want to document my journey and process here in hopes of helping others as well! This all starts with the basis of taking a deeper look at your body’s symptoms and the message its trying to give you. Most of our solutions and answers already lie in our bodies, we just have to get out of our heads more and into our bodies. Tune in and learn to have patience and love for your body as you make these changes!