Because of genetics, my belly is unproportionally big. I look athletic overall except for the gut. It frustrates me a lot cause it looks so damn ugly. It is really hard to drop that weight cause when I diet my gut gets smaller but I get too skinny on the other parts of the body, so it keeps being unproportinal
You say you “look athletic” … but are you athletic? Not asking about skill, asking about whether or not you exercise regularly. Your genetic predisposition to store fat there marks you as someone at genetic risk for all of what goes along with metabolic syndrome, the bad lipids, the predispostion to diabetes, the high blood pressure, the increased risks for heart disease and stroke.
Regular exercise, working up to including some higher intensity exercise and some resistance exercise, and a reasonable nutrition plan (such as but not restricted to the DASH plan) is your best bet for getting at that visceral central fat while preserving or increasing muscle and, more importantly, at increasing your chance to be healthy and productive longer.
BTW for those a bit confused: gluten is protein, not carbohydrate. It is an incomplete protein that typically makes up only a small part of most people’s protein intake, usually complemented by other protein sources. What we know in humans is that diets high in whole grains (which mostly contain gluten) are associated with lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and possibly obesity. It seems entirely reasonable that some people could be gluten intolerant without having celiac disease and the true (not just diagnosed) incidence of celiac has indeed gone up in recent decades for reasons that are unclear; it however seems highly improbable that gluten free makes any sense for the general population.
As an anecdote, I recently read that celiac’s and arthritis may be linked, so i tried a gluten free 2 weeks via the simple route of avoiding bread, noodles, and breaded foods. I don"t care for most “substitutes” so am eating slightly differently. A few more salads, a little more Chinese food, and a lot of burgers sans buns, and very few pizzas.
I found this is easy on my digestion, but i am weak willed and break down every couple of weeks and have a sandwich, or some pizza, usually 1 meals worth of bread. I find that my guts seem to have some minor swelling for a day or so afterward, i.e. my pants are a bit snug, and my belts need a looser notch.
I am losing a bit of weight this way, but just down to the normal low end of the range i have been in for years, but appear slimmer than i have for quite awhile. I have dropped maybe ten pounds, but look more like i lost fifteen, just cause i seem to be less “bloated” in the stomach region.
This isn"t data, just offered as a personal anecdote.
PS a certain pizza delivery service offers gluten free crusts that aren"t good, but are tolerable if slathered in hot sauce, if you like hot sauce on your pizza, as i do. And nuts can be made into craker-like substances, ok in small doses.
Frivolous cultural note–hey, this isn’t Great Debates.
On watching The Women (the original version, of course), I remember Rosiland Russell’s character (the trendy fashion victim) refusing a biscuit because she was watching her weight. The hostess assures her “No starch. It’s gluten!” So she takes the biscuit.
Gluten definitely causes some people distress. But, for most people, the anti-gluten thing just a fad. Just as there may have been a pro-gluten fad, years ago.
If we want to lose that belly fat, there’s no magic shortcut.
Whaaaa…? Wheat not have nutrition? Can you back that up with studies?
Are you seriously saying that whole-grain wheat does nothing for your body? Or isn’t “good for you”?
(Or is this the logical conclusion of the Lo-Carb No-Gluten No-Donuts fad?)
'Cept lipo. 
An ex of mine is allergic to wheat. No celiac disease: allergic to wheat. And, in fact, grasses in general.
Wheat products, such as bread, make her sick. Not ICU-level sick, just queasy and drowsy.
So she pretty much avoids breads etc and sticks to gluten-free foodstuffs.
…and she’s overweight, so clearly just cutting your gluten intake isn’t a magic cure for fatness, belly or otherwise.
Yeah, gluten free eating is not a magical weight loss trick. Most chocolate is gluten free, for example. So is most ice cream.
I was really sleepy when I first found this thread, and I was confused. I thought:
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Wait a minute; I should eat mice instead of bread?
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WTF? Why does this happen at the same time I’m learning to bake bread?
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Where can I get those ten free mice?:smack:
First of all while gluten is found in wheat products they are not the same thing.
People can be allergic to wheat but can still eat other products with gluten.
Gluten allergy is extremely rare to nonexistant (although I think almost everything can have somebody allergic to it).
People who have true celiac disease can have significant malabsorption issues. Therefore, changing to a gluten-free diet can cause weight gain. Some studies have shown that the majority of celiac patients gain weight when changed to a gluten-free diet while others show that weight tends to normalize. However, going gluten-free is not going to automatically help you lose weight.
Fat that settles aroung the abdomen tend to have a higher correlation to disease than fat that settles elsewhere (like the hips and thighs) but also tends to be easier to lose.
Finally, there will always be people complaining of fatigue, bloating and inability to lose weight. Every few years another theory of what causes this condition becomes popular. This theory may be that the syndrome is a variant of a known condition, or it may represent something entirely new. It may be called occult hypothyroidism, or hypoglycemia, or lactose-intolerance, or systemic yeast, or chronic EBV or gluten sensitivity. For a few years a new restrictive diet or regimen will be touted as the panacea that can finally cure this condition. In a few years, as the treatment proves unsuccessful, a new theory will arise and set off a new wave of publicity. Meanwhile, there will always be people who have some of the actual conditions listed above who can be successfully treated. However, the majority of the patients with the syndrome of fatique, bloating and trouble losing weight will move on to the new theory.