What really causes a beer belly and how to get rid of it

For a joke, some men will cradle their bulging midriffs and laugh about the investment it’s taken to grow a pot belly. “Beer isn’t cheap,” they’ll say. That’s true, but the financial cost of a beer belly is not as consequential as the considerable health costs.

For men, a growing waistline can contribute to a range of life-limiting conditions including heart disease, cancers, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

No wonder then that as we become more aware of the risks, the joke is no longer funny and men who want healthier lives are increasingly looking to shed their beer bellies.

While beer bellies are associated with men who drink excess lager, a beer belly is just a fat belly. It’s not made of anything different to other fat bellies and non-beer drinkers can also develop what would classically be described as a beer belly.

Philip Chant, director of Bodyscan, a company that uses X-ray technology to measure the ratio of fat, muscle and bone in people’s bodies, says: “What we call a beer belly is just a fat belly. Beer bellies are typically associated with men, because men naturally store their fat around the middle, while women are more prone to store it around their hips, buttocks and thighs. Beer can certainly be a contributing factor because beer is calorific and excess calories lead to fat deposits, and as men get fatter, they build that fat around the middle.”

What constitutes a beer belly?

A beer belly can be a combination of both subcutaneous fat, the soft fat that sits under the skin, and visceral fat, which is more dangerous and packs around the organs. Your genetics largely dictate how and where your body will store fat.

“Some people will acquire more visceral fat than others” explains Chant. “Some don’t have to store much fat before they start storing it viscerally.”

In addition to belly fat, excess beer calories, or any other food or drink, can also cause men’s breasts to get bigger, often referred to as ‘man boobs’ or ‘moobs’.

There is also an unconnected medical condition called gynaecomastia which causes breast tissue to grow and affects male long-term heavy drinkers who develop alcoholic liver disease. It is thought this is because the ethanol in alcohol may disrupt the synthesis of testosterone, while the phytoestrogens in alcohol cause an increase in oestrogen.

What causes a beer belly?

Simply put, a beer belly is caused by excess calories and if you drink a lot of alcohol, you are more likely to put on weight because alcohol is calorific.

It contains seven calories a gram. Fat contains nine and protein and carbohydrates contain four. A pint of lager is around 180 calories, a pint of cider is 220, stout and ale are around 250.

Beer is not the only culprit. Two large glasses of red wine equal almost 20 per cent of a man’s daily recommended intake of 2500 calories. Beer also tends to be consumed along with other calorific foods such as bar snacks, curries and kebabs.

A second factor is hormonal. Alcohol creates a spike in the stress hormone cortisol, which remains elevated for around 24 hours after consumption. Cortisol increases appetite and can particularly cause cravings for sweet, fatty and salty foods.

Also, some middle-aged men are prone to become less active, which makes them less likely to burn off the extra calories they consume.

There are also several temporary factors that can cause bellies to swell after consuming alcohol, thereby creating the appearance of a beer belly. Carbonated beer such as lager creates gas, which builds up in the digestive system. Beer also ferments in the stomach, creating carbon dioxide gas and bloating.

Alcohol is also a diuretic, which means it promotes water loss through urine. As the body starts to dehydrate, it begins to conserve liquid, which can cause puffiness and bloating.

How can I lose my beer belly and still drink alcohol?

In Australia, authorities advise people that to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day.

If you’re serious about losing your beer belly, you should aim for less than this by having several days of abstinence throughout the week and, when drinking, alternating alcoholic drinks with glasses of water, as people tend to drink less when they are full. Swapping alcoholic drinks for low or no-alcohol options will also help reduce calorie intake.

What are the health implications of a beer belly?

Studies have shown that people who carry excess belly fat face higher risks of a range of serious conditions including heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

It is especially harmful when laid down directly on and around the organs inside the abdomen, including the liver. Over and above the risks associated with obesity, this visceral fat also increases the risk of stroke and some cancers.

A 2022 Oxford University study found that men with beer bellies face a higher risk of dying from prostate cancer.

Each five-point increase in a man’s BMI was found to push up his risk of prostate cancer death by 10 per cent and every four inches on a man’s waist increases his risk of dying from the disease by seven per cent.

Dr Aurora Perez-Cornago, lead author of the Oxford study, said that the exact mechanism behind the finding was not fully known.

“While some biological mechanisms have been proposed they are not well-established yet, and it is also possible that the disease may be harder to detect in men with obesity, leading to it being diagnosed later when it is harder to treat. In either case, our latest results provide another reason for men to try to maintain a healthy weight,” she said.

Meanwhile, a 2015 study found that even slim people with beer bellies have twice the mortality risk than those who are heavier but with a more even distribution of fat across their bodies.

And if that wasn’t enough to put you off your second pint, having a beer belly reduces a man’s chances of having children by almost half because fat produces a chemical that turns testosterone into the female sex hormone, oestrogen.

According to Harvard School of Public Health research, every extra two inches on a man’s waist cuts his odds of having a baby naturally and via IVF by nearly 10 per cent.

How to lose a beer belly

The good news is that it’s no harder to lose a beer belly than it is to lose any other kind of body fat. The bad news is there are no shortcuts. Losing a beer belly is a simple equation. Consume less calories than you burn.

This is best done through a balance of diet and exercise and there are many variations and techniques.

You may well lose your beer belly if you give up beer altogether, but only as long as omitting beer from your everyday consumption creates a calorie deficit. If you replace the calories in the beer with calories from other sources, your beer belly will go nowhere.

“Doing aerobic exercise while eating a healthy diet is the best way to lose belly fat and overall body fat,” says Laura Cartwright, cardiac rehabilitation specialist and exercise physiologist at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

“Aerobic exercise includes any activity that raises your heart rate such as walking, dancing, running, or swimming.”

As a guide, to burn off the calories in a typical pint of lager it takes an average man 13 minutes of energetic exercise, such as running or playing football, 15 minutes of cycling, 20 minutes of swimming or half an hour playing golf.

Strength training in addition to aerobic exercise is also recommended by fitness experts as lean muscles burn calories.

Doing stomach crunches and other abdominal exercises however, will not target belly fat. They will tone the muscles under or on top of the fat. Indeed, scientific evidence shows that it’s impossible to reduce fat in one specific area by exercising that body part alone.

However, you are more likely to see reductions in belly fat first when you start to lose weight if you are prone to store your fat around the middle, as fat tends to reduce first from where it was last deposited, according to Chant.

Stress and lack of sleep can also affect fat loss because they can lead to increases in cortisol, so relaxing activities such as mindfulness, tai chi and yoga will also help make a difference to a beer belly.