What are the culprits of belly fat? I can mention a few: a diet too rich in carbohydrates or fats, especially if you are sedentary, a sedentary lifestyle, insulin resistance and in general hormonal problems (for example of the thyroid but not only: an excess of estrogen also causes accumulation of fat).
Then there are people who put fat on other parts of the body and we know it: but belly fat is undoubtedly the most dangerous for health, and now many women also have a wider waistline than their ancestors, hence the classic idea so women put fat on their legs and hips and men put fat on their bellies doesn’t make much sense anymore.
But there’s another culprit in belly fat, and that’s stresschronic.
According to the  University College of London which analyzed a large sample of men and women over the course of four years of study , high levels of cortisol, a major stress hormone, were linked to a higher body mass index and waist circumference. greater. According to the researchers, there is “strong evidence” that for example links obesity, and in particular a greater share of belly fat, to high levels of stress.

In fact, cortisol is an indicator of chronic stress: if for example we have momentary stress (both negative and positive: for example, news that we are waiting for with fibrillation), adrenaline rises as a metabolic response ( fight or flight reaction) to an alarm situation, to which the body reacts (so-called adrenaline rushes). Therefore not a normal situation. High levels of adrenaline in the blood are in fact associated with pathological situations and in any case are limited: in short, it is difficult to have high adrenaline for a long time if not in pathological conditions. This too can have negative effects on health, but obviously one thing is to receive unexpected news or have a mishap that makes us anxious (alarm situation) or experience a sudden fear, another is to be chronically stressed : for example to make a life stressful, being anxious, living badly. In this case, cortisol is the key stress hormone.
Cortisol can build up over the years, which is why the researchers measured cortisol from a sample of the participants’ hair, even discovering the old age of stress .
In practice, people with chronic stress proceed by “build-up”, and this build-up of cortisol causes an immune response in the body, which reacts with a build-up of belly fat as a defense reaction.