May 5, 2025 • 28 mins
Is it Bloating or Belly Fat??? Yikes! On this episode of The Ageless and Awesome Podcast, I clarify the confusion. With a touch of humour and plenty of empathy, you'll learn how to spot the tell-tale signs of bloating vs belly fat and what might be causing it. It's a candid conversation about gut feelings—quite literally—and the small changes that could bring you big relief.
I outline the differences between bloating, belly fat and visceral fat PLUS what you can do about it. Listen now!
Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause?
It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).
I’m here to help with my proven method.
Here's how I can support you -
1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. Book your call here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast, and this is podcast
number two in my belly fatseries.
(00:47):
You've all told me how much youhave enjoyed my last pod on
belly fat, so this week I wantedto talk about is it belly fat
or is it bloating?
Because when I speak to women,particularly on the
pre-screening calls I do for myprogram, the Glow Protocol, one
of the first questions I ask toassess gut health is do you
(01:11):
experience bloating?
And I reckon around 60% of thetime women will say to tell.
(01:32):
But generally speaking, thereare some very significant
differences between the two andthey're absolutely caused by
different things.
So that's what I'm going to becovering off today, so let's get
into it.
So, firstly, let's talk aboutwhat actually is bloating,
(01:54):
because sometimes it is easy toget confused.
Bloating is a sensation, it'salso visible, a visible look,
but it's also accompanied by asensation, generally, of
tightness in the tummy area, andthat can be up towards the top
of the tummy, so above the navel, it can be below the navel, so
(02:15):
this sense of being tight like adrum can be firm.
It can be quite difficult tograsp.
So what I mean by that is andI'm pressing into my tummy as
I'm talking when you kind of cangrip flesh around your tummy,
that's generally fat, and ifit's very firm and really
(02:37):
difficult to press into and grabhandfuls of, then that's
possibly bloat.
Handfuls of, then that'spossibly bloat.
Bloat is almost always gas.
It can sometimes, though, befluid retention, and generally,
if it's fluid retention, that'swhere you'll see this bloating,
(02:57):
on the lower part of the belly,so below the navel, and the
things that can cause this gas.
There are loads and loads, soit can be something as benign as
having a gassy kind of drink,and often, when we have a gassy
drink, there'll be a fair bit ofburping, and that's the gas
(03:18):
being released out of the tummy,obviously, and back out of the
body.
So it can just be that if youdrink a lot of soda water
particularly, or soft drinks,you may get bloating just
because of the gas building up.
Also, one of the really commoncauses of bloating is food
intolerances, and often peopleactually don't know they have a
(03:40):
food intolerance, because whenwe think of food intolerances we
tend to think about diarrhea,for example.
But interestingly, the symptomsof food intolerances can be
super varied.
They can be bloating, it can beconstipation, it can be skin
rashes, it can be hay fever typesymptoms, it can be like an
(04:03):
itchy, soft palate which can bepart of that hay fever type
symptom.
So yeah, there's lots ofdifferent symptoms when it comes
to food intolerances and I'lloften have people say to me,
particularly when it comes todairy products.
They'll say to me oh, I cantolerate like a latte, for
example, but any more milk thanthat.
(04:24):
Tolerate a latte, for example,but any more milk than that, and
I've got problems, whetherthat's pain, diarrhea, that's
probably the two most commonones.
But you know what, if you'reone of those people that are
kind of thinking well, I canhave one latte a day and that's
about as much dairy as I cantolerate.
Or I can have some cheese andthat's about as much dairy as I
can tolerate.
What will be happening insideyour body is some low-grade
(04:47):
inflammation that may notactually be symptomatic, but it
can lead to things like weightgain.
It can lead to other chronickind of conditions and gut
issues.
So I would strongly advise youto, if you do know that you have
a bit of an intolerance tocertain foods, to limit, like to
really eradicate it.
(05:08):
Have at least six to eightweeks where you don't have it at
all to allow there to be somehealing of the lining of the
intestines and then I'd reallyprobably avoid it as much as you
possibly can.
Another cause of bloating andthis may surprise you is stress,
because when we get into ourstress response and you may have
(05:31):
heard me talk about this before, but I always like to talk
about it because a lot of peoplereally underestimate the impact
of stress on our bodies.
But if you're under a lot ofchronic stress or in that stress
response a lot of the time,what can happen is your
resources are diverted away fromyour gastrointestinal system so
(05:52):
your blood flow is more out toyour muscles so that you can run
away or you can fight thepredator in inverted commas
because your stress response isreally reptilian and it's always
about trying to save your life.
It's not about your mortgagebill or your credit card or
whatever.
It's actually eliciting aresponse.
(06:15):
That's all about saving yourlife.
So what happens is you get thatblood flow diversion.
It goes away from yourreproductive organs and also
from your gut and slowseverything right down.
And I'll never forget when I wasa theater nurse looking after a
young she was a teenage girl inthe recovery section of theater
(06:37):
and she'd had a horse ridingaccident and had had to go into
surgery without fasting.
Normally, if you go and haveplanned surgery, you will be
asked to fast.
So because this was anemergency, they took her
straight into surgery and shevomited after surgery and,
honestly, you could identifyevery bit of food.
(06:57):
I know this is a bit disgusting, but it was like I'd never seen
anything quite like it, becauseit was like her gut had just
completely stopped, which it hadbecause she was in stress and
yeah.
So it really was a great, vividexample to me.
I've never forgotten it thatyour gut just slows right down
(07:19):
or even becomes quite stationaryduring periods of extreme
stress, also just having asluggish gut.
So you may have a medicalcondition.
So there's something calledgastroparesis, like paralysis of
the stomach.
You may have like a sluggishgut.
There may be something geneticmaybe lots of members of your
family have this but that candefinitely lead to gas buildup
(07:44):
from your gut bacteria andbloating.
And that kind of is the samewith things like IBS.
Particularly if you have aconstipation dominant IBS,
you'll have a sluggish gut.
Maybe If you have adiarrhea-based IBS, then you'll
have that disruption to your gutbacteria which means that
you'll get excess fermentationand that can lead to bloating.
Also, inflammatory boweldiseases like Crohn's then
you'll have that disruption toyour gut bacteria which means
(08:04):
that you'll get excessfermentation and that can lead
to bloating.
Also, inflammatory boweldiseases like Crohn's disease,
like ulcerative colitis, againbecause of that inflammation and
the impact on your gut bacteriathat can cause that excess gas
to be produced.
Being sedentary so almosteveryone that goes on a long
haul flight will haveconstipation at the other end
(08:27):
because you're generally justsitting around, you know, for
hours and hours.
If you're going virtuallyanywhere from Australia, it's
going to be at least six toeight hours normally, and then
you've got to add on the timethat you're just sitting around
an airport terminal.
So yeah, and the dehydrationthat comes along with that as
well, um often will lead toconstipation and, uh, that sorry
(08:50):
, being sedentary um will alsotrap gas.
So you get that constipation.
But there's also this gastrapping, because when we move
around it actually allows theintestines to move and that
allows the gas to kind of movealong your intestine and either
come out the other end inflatulence or maybe up the top
(09:12):
with burping.
So, yeah, moving aroundactually really helps.
That's why yoga is really goodfor gut health and for reducing
bloating and reducingconstipation and things like
that, because it allows thefecal matter to move around in
your guts.
I don't know if that's a bit toographic as well, but that's how
it is.
And what else did I want to sayabout that?
Yeah, if you're sitting down alot during the day, so if you're
(09:36):
in a desk job, if you're gamingprobably the audience that's
listening to this podcast is notnecessarily gaming, but your
kids might be and if they'resitting down for hours and hours
and hours gaming, then that canlead to gut issues.
We know for sure it leads toconstipation, because kids
ignore the urge to go in and goto the toilet and that will in
(10:00):
itself lead to bloating andother issues, gut infections.
So if you've ever hadsalmonella or you've had like
any sort of, been to adeveloping country and had food
poisoning or anything like that,you will have noticed bloating
and that is caused by yeah, thebacteria.
(10:20):
I've talked a lot about bacteriaand I probably should have
started by talking aboutdysbiosis.
So dysbiosis is the imbalanceof the beneficial and
non-beneficial.
We used to call these goodbacteria and bad bacteria.
We don't do that anymorebecause a lot of the so-called
bad bacteria are supposed to bethere.
They're just supposed to bethere in the correct amount.
(10:41):
So we now call them beneficialand non-beneficial gut bacteria.
So if there is an imbalance inthose and that can be from
antibiotics, it can be againfrom stress, it can be from food
intolerances, all of the thingsI've mentioned already If you
have that dysbiosis, then you'llmost likely get bloating
because the gut bacteria will befermenting and producing the
(11:04):
gas and we often see that in acondition called SIBO, which is
small intestine bacterialovergrowth, and that's when you
have good gut bacteria that haverelocated up into the small
intestine and that can happenwith certain medications, like
acid reducing medications.
(11:25):
It can happen with stress, itcan happen with eating disorders
, it can happen with certain gutinfections like Helicobacter
pylori, it can happen withantibiotic use, like so many
things, and also gallbladderdisease is another one, because
if you've had your gallbladderremoved, for example, or you've
(11:51):
had gallstones or infections orthings like that, then that will
impact your ability to producebile or to get bile into the gut
to break down your fats, andthat can cause bloating as well.
So I've covered a lot ofdifferent causes of the gas, and
this can be upper belly, as Imentioned before, or lower belly
, and that often is an importantsymptom to tell your healthcare
(12:12):
practitioner because that canhelp us locate where the problem
is without necessarily goinginto some really expensive
testing.
And yeah, so upper bellybloating is generally above the
navel.
It's generally going to beafter you eat and there is a
real difference.
Another thing to notice foryour healthcare professional is
(12:36):
is that bloating present whenyou wake up in the morning, or
is your tummy flatter in themorning and tending to get more
bloated or distended after yourfirst meal, or is it later in
the day or is it after dinner?
All of that is really relevantinformation.
So if you're listening to thispodcast and thinking.
(12:57):
This is something I probablyneed to speak to my healthcare
professional about.
If you go in with all of thisinformation even information
about you know when you pass abowel motion does that improve
the bloating?
How often are you passing abowel motion?
Have you had food poisoning inthe past 12 months?
Are you noticing excess burpingor excess flatulence?
Are you noticing undigestedfood in the stool?
(13:20):
Because that is really often acause of bloating, because your
gut bacteria are used to foodcoming down past them in a
certain form.
So if your body's not breakingdown your food at the right
points in your gastrointestinaltract and the food starts
getting broken down right fromwhen it enters your mouth you
(13:41):
have digestive enzymes in yoursaliva and even just chewing
your food really well chewinghas a really good function.
And if you're not chewing yourfood well because you might be
distracted you might be eatingat your desk or in front of the
TV or whatever then if you'renot chewing it that well, when
it gets to the stomach it's in abigger form than the stomach
(14:03):
perhaps can handle and then thatjust follows on all through
your digestive tract.
So chewing your food reallywell makes a huge difference to
your bloating.
So that's something to think ofas well, as are you actually
really chewing your food well orare you throwing everything
down because you're always in ahurry?
Something to think about.
So I think that's all I want totalk about when it comes to
(14:27):
bloat.
So there's a lot.
There's a lot to consider whenwe're looking at bloating and
then the difference between thatand fat.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthat, because, in fact, if you
listen to the belly fat podcastI did two weeks ago, I talked
about visceral fat, right.
So you've got belly fat, whichcan be what we call subcutaneous
(14:49):
, so that's like stuff that'smore soft, generally speaking,
and visceral fat can be a lotharder and you often see a lot
of this in men when you talkabout, like the beer gut, for
example, it's often seems quitehard, and if that is something
that's not changing during theday, then that's probably
visceral fat rather than bloat,and that visceral fat is quite
(15:10):
hard, whereas this moresubcutaneous fat you can
actually grip and it's a bitmalleable.
That is not probably visceralfat.
So the belly fat itself willnot change on a day-to-day basis
or a time of day basis, samewith the visceral fat, and
that's probably the maindifference between your belly
(15:32):
sorry, your bloat and your bellyfat.
Okay, so if you're looking atyour own tummy and going, is
this bloat or is this just fatwhen I say just fat, obviously I
don't mean just fat, becausethat's important to manage as
well.
But yeah, if it's bloating,it's probably going to be
related to some sort of gutbacteria issue or it's fluid
(15:56):
retention.
And if it's fluid retention,you can look at doing things
like reducing salt, increasingwater and also noting when this
happens.
If it's in relation to yourmenstrual cycle, for example,
then that is going to give you alittle bit more insight into
the cause, which can be hormonal.
Or if you have endometriosis,for example, that's definitely
going to cause some bloatingpremenstrually.
(16:17):
So let's talk a little bitabout what to do about it, right
?
So if it's bloating and it'sgas, you probably need to get it
assessed by someone who has aninterest or qualifications in
gut health particularlynaturopaths, certain
nutritionists, certain doctorsvery into it and interested in
it, and can help assess it,often without the need for
(16:41):
extensive testing.
Sometimes testing is reallyimportant, often without the
need for extensive testing.
Sometimes testing is reallyimportant.
I will often get people to do afood journal for a week just to
see if we can notice any kindsof relationships between the
types of food that you're eatingand the incidence of the
bloating.
Often this can also be good fordoing a bit of an elimination.
(17:03):
I'll often ask people toeliminate gluten for a couple of
weeks or dairy for a couple ofweeks, sometimes even eggs
Probably the top threeintolerant or allergic type
foods and often just taking outdairy for a few weeks makes a
huge difference and it can alsomake a difference in brain fog
and skin itching and that sortof stuff as well.
(17:26):
So it's kind of important toidentify it.
If there is an elimination doneand we can't really work out
what it is, there's some testingthat can get done.
You can do skin prick testingthrough your doctor.
You can do hair testing, whichcan be quite good for testing
biocompatibility with differentfoods and household chemicals.
You can also do foodintolerance testing.
(17:51):
There's so many different testswe can do.
We can also test for thingslike SIBO, which is that small
intestine bacterial overgrowth.
We can also do gut microbiometesting and that can be really
cool to see whether your levelsof beneficial bacteria are at
the right place whether yourbalance of beneficial and
non-beneficial are in the rightratios.
(18:14):
We can look at if there arewhat we call opportunistic
bacteria there that can causemajor issues.
If they are, we can look atyour digestive markers and see
if you've got enough of yourdigestive enzymes being produced
.
Also look at your stress levelsand all of the things.
So it's really important.
(18:34):
This is not something bloating,is not something that if someone
has it, that I would considerto be inconsequential.
It does desperately.
Maybe not desperately, butdefinitely need to be addressed.
And generally we can do a lotwith food.
Sometimes we look at thingslike are you drinking lots of
water when you're eating?
(18:55):
That's generally not a greatidea, particularly if you've got
digestive issues.
We can look at ways ofstimulating your own digestive
juices.
Sometimes we need to do alittle bit of work on your gut
bacteria and that can be donewith certain supplements.
It can be done, again, withfood.
So, yeah, there's a lot we cando.
(19:19):
But if it's fat, what can we do?
You know, like, once we workout, is this fat or is this
bloating?
And then if it's fat, thenthere's so much we can do and
generally that's going to befood.
I was doing a little bit ofresearch for this episode and a
lot of the things.
When you Google things likebelly fat Because I'm always
(19:40):
kind of interested in what youknow if I, as a just as a lay
person, was to Google it, what'sgoing to come up and a lot of
the things that came up was howto burn belly fat.
Now, even you know a personaltrainer is going to say to you
if you're looking at weight loss, and particularly around the
belly, it's going to be 80%nutrition and 20% exercise.
(20:01):
You can really do a lot withfood.
You don't have to smashyourself at the gym and I really
don't recommend it,particularly for women over 40,
unless that's already somethingthat you do and you've been
athletic all of your life andit's something you really enjoy,
then sure.
But if you're not someone thatloves the gym, please don't
think you have to smash yourselfat the gym in order to lose
(20:22):
weight, because that is not thetruth.
The food is a way, moreimportant way, to manage this
and particularly if you do haveinjuries, if you have issues
with your joints you know I'vehad so many women come through
my clinic that have put onweight because I've gone to
certain let's call it HIITclasses and they've done their
(20:45):
backs.
They've put their backs outbecause they've just absolutely
gone for it and their body,their core strength, hasn't been
there to support their back orthe exercises have just not been
appropriate for their level offitness and yeah, so then
there's going to be more weightcomes on because there's going
to be inflammation in the body,and then food is going to be one
(21:06):
of your only kind of answers Uh, in terms of exercise, do not
underestimate the power of abrisk walk.
Seriously, um, fat burning zoneis actually a little different
to your cardiovascular oraerobic zone.
So you know, a brisk walk whereyou can just keep a
conversation going is ideal forfat burning.
(21:28):
If you're looking at exercise,obviously resistance training is
great because you're buildingmuscle and muscle burns more
fuel at rest or more energy atrest, so that can be a good way
to burn fat.
But what I have found and I'vehad clients literally say to me
I feel like I've been turnedinto a fat burning machine is, I
mean, obviously, havingpersonalized nutrition.
That's exactly the right thingfor you to reduce inflammation,
(21:51):
to work on your gut health, tomake sure that we are
eliminating the foods that areintolerant for you.
At this point and actually I dowant to talk about that just
briefly If you have foodintolerances, they may not be
(22:11):
forever.
It may be because your gut isjust reactive, because it's
inflamed, even though you maynot have a lot of symptoms in
terms of pain and things likethat.
But if you have bloating, ifyou have either constipation or
diarrhea or you have lots offlatulence, maybe that
flatulence is very smelly, ifyou have lots of burping, all of
these can be addressed oftenwith eliminating certain foods,
(22:33):
but then often we can bring themback in.
Once we heal the gut andsometimes we use some
supplements to help with this aswell you can heal the gut and
that means that you can thenhave some of those foods again,
maybe not in huge amounts, maybeyou can.
It's a bit of a suck it and seeapproach with some of this when
we're reintroducing foods.
(22:54):
But yeah, it's a really.
Please don't lose hope thatyou'll never be going to be able
to have ice cream, for example,again, to be able to have ice
cream, for example, again,because if we do the gut healing
work, then that's absolutelypossible.
Of course, if it's an allergy,that's a little different.
It's a different part of yourimmune system that responds.
(23:14):
An allergy is generally goingto be those more hay fever type
symptoms like runny nose, itchy,soft palate, hives, weeping
eyes, maybe even a little bittightness in the chest or
wheezing.
You definitely don't want topush that and you would probably
have to eliminate those foodsforever.
So yeah, just giving a littlebit of context there.
(23:37):
So yeah, so some of the thingsI've found that work really well
, other than the personalizednutrition plan for burning fat,
is three meals a day, no snacks.
That is probably one of themost important things you can do
in terms of turning yourselfinto a fat burning machine,
because what that does is ithelps keep your blood sugar
(23:57):
level balanced.
Now you do have to have theright amount of protein and
carbs and fats to get in theright space metabolically for
this, so that you're not gettinghungry in between those three
meals.
That's really important.
That's not the objective here.
The objective is to balance theblood glucose so that your
(24:20):
insulin is maintained at anappropriate level.
When your insulin is high, thatputs you in fat storage mode.
If we can get that insulin downin the appropriate ratio with
your blood sugar level andgenerally we can do that by
timing meals and giving yourbody some time to return to a
(24:43):
benchmarked glucose and insulinlevel.
You will burn fat in betweenmeals.
It's awesome.
Another thing is to have yourtwo bites of protein first with
any of your meals.
Two bites of protein will helptrick your body into thinking
you're having a high proteinmeal and it'll slow down that
insulin response and again helpyou to burn fat rather than
(25:06):
store fat.
So that's just two little tips.
There's quite a bit more you cando, but for the purposes of
this podcast, that's where Iwill leave it.
So we've talked about bloating.
We've talked about belly fat.
We've talked about how to burnthat belly fat.
We've talked about what aresome of the causes of bloating.
Now, in terms of managingbloating, that really depends on
(25:30):
the cause.
So I'm not going to go intothat today.
It really depends on the cause.
But if you have any specificquestions you want me to address
about this on the next podcast,please let me know.
More than happy to do that.
So I hope you've enjoyedtoday's podcast.
If you feel like popping me ina little five-star review, I
would absolutely love that.
Enjoy your week.
(25:50):
I will be back on Thursday withQ&A.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple Podcasts, or the follow
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If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
(26:12):
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
Or if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atsuzygardenwellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast, and this is podcast
number two in my belly fatseries.
(00:47):
You've all told me how much youhave enjoyed my last pod on
belly fat, so this week I wantedto talk about is it belly fat
or is it bloating?
Because when I speak to women,particularly on the
pre-screening calls I do for myprogram, the Glow Protocol, one
of the first questions I ask toassess gut health is do you
(01:11):
experience bloating?
And I reckon around 60% of thetime women will say to tell.
(01:32):
But generally speaking, thereare some very significant
differences between the two andthey're absolutely caused by
different things.
So that's what I'm going to becovering off today, so let's get
into it.
So, firstly, let's talk aboutwhat actually is bloating,
(01:54):
because sometimes it is easy toget confused.
Bloating is a sensation, it'salso visible, a visible look,
but it's also accompanied by asensation, generally, of
tightness in the tummy area, andthat can be up towards the top
of the tummy, so above the navel, it can be below the navel, so
(02:15):
this sense of being tight like adrum can be firm.
It can be quite difficult tograsp.
So what I mean by that is andI'm pressing into my tummy as
I'm talking when you kind of cangrip flesh around your tummy,
that's generally fat, and ifit's very firm and really
(02:37):
difficult to press into and grabhandfuls of, then that's
possibly bloat.
Handfuls of, then that'spossibly bloat.
Bloat is almost always gas.
It can sometimes, though, befluid retention, and generally,
if it's fluid retention, that'swhere you'll see this bloating,
(02:57):
on the lower part of the belly,so below the navel, and the
things that can cause this gas.
There are loads and loads, soit can be something as benign as
having a gassy kind of drink,and often, when we have a gassy
drink, there'll be a fair bit ofburping, and that's the gas
(03:18):
being released out of the tummy,obviously, and back out of the
body.
So it can just be that if youdrink a lot of soda water
particularly, or soft drinks,you may get bloating just
because of the gas building up.
Also, one of the really commoncauses of bloating is food
intolerances, and often peopleactually don't know they have a
(03:40):
food intolerance, because whenwe think of food intolerances we
tend to think about diarrhea,for example.
But interestingly, the symptomsof food intolerances can be
super varied.
They can be bloating, it can beconstipation, it can be skin
rashes, it can be hay fever typesymptoms, it can be like an
(04:03):
itchy, soft palate which can bepart of that hay fever type
symptom.
So yeah, there's lots ofdifferent symptoms when it comes
to food intolerances and I'lloften have people say to me,
particularly when it comes todairy products.
They'll say to me oh, I cantolerate like a latte, for
example, but any more milk thanthat.
(04:24):
Tolerate a latte, for example,but any more milk than that, and
I've got problems, whetherthat's pain, diarrhea, that's
probably the two most commonones.
But you know what, if you'reone of those people that are
kind of thinking well, I canhave one latte a day and that's
about as much dairy as I cantolerate.
Or I can have some cheese andthat's about as much dairy as I
can tolerate.
What will be happening insideyour body is some low-grade
(04:47):
inflammation that may notactually be symptomatic, but it
can lead to things like weightgain.
It can lead to other chronickind of conditions and gut
issues.
So I would strongly advise youto, if you do know that you have
a bit of an intolerance tocertain foods, to limit, like to
really eradicate it.
(05:08):
Have at least six to eightweeks where you don't have it at
all to allow there to be somehealing of the lining of the
intestines and then I'd reallyprobably avoid it as much as you
possibly can.
Another cause of bloating andthis may surprise you is stress,
because when we get into ourstress response and you may have
(05:31):
heard me talk about this before, but I always like to talk
about it because a lot of peoplereally underestimate the impact
of stress on our bodies.
But if you're under a lot ofchronic stress or in that stress
response a lot of the time,what can happen is your
resources are diverted away fromyour gastrointestinal system so
(05:52):
your blood flow is more out toyour muscles so that you can run
away or you can fight thepredator in inverted commas
because your stress response isreally reptilian and it's always
about trying to save your life.
It's not about your mortgagebill or your credit card or
whatever.
It's actually eliciting aresponse.
(06:15):
That's all about saving yourlife.
So what happens is you get thatblood flow diversion.
It goes away from yourreproductive organs and also
from your gut and slowseverything right down.
And I'll never forget when I wasa theater nurse looking after a
young she was a teenage girl inthe recovery section of theater
(06:37):
and she'd had a horse ridingaccident and had had to go into
surgery without fasting.
Normally, if you go and haveplanned surgery, you will be
asked to fast.
So because this was anemergency, they took her
straight into surgery and shevomited after surgery and,
honestly, you could identifyevery bit of food.
(06:57):
I know this is a bit disgusting, but it was like I'd never seen
anything quite like it, becauseit was like her gut had just
completely stopped, which it hadbecause she was in stress and
yeah.
So it really was a great, vividexample to me.
I've never forgotten it thatyour gut just slows right down
(07:19):
or even becomes quite stationaryduring periods of extreme
stress, also just having asluggish gut.
So you may have a medicalcondition.
So there's something calledgastroparesis, like paralysis of
the stomach.
You may have like a sluggishgut.
There may be something geneticmaybe lots of members of your
family have this but that candefinitely lead to gas buildup
(07:44):
from your gut bacteria andbloating.
And that kind of is the samewith things like IBS.
Particularly if you have aconstipation dominant IBS,
you'll have a sluggish gut.
Maybe If you have adiarrhea-based IBS, then you'll
have that disruption to your gutbacteria which means that
you'll get excess fermentationand that can lead to bloating.
Also, inflammatory boweldiseases like Crohn's then
you'll have that disruption toyour gut bacteria which means
(08:04):
that you'll get excessfermentation and that can lead
to bloating.
Also, inflammatory boweldiseases like Crohn's disease,
like ulcerative colitis, againbecause of that inflammation and
the impact on your gut bacteriathat can cause that excess gas
to be produced.
Being sedentary so almosteveryone that goes on a long
haul flight will haveconstipation at the other end
(08:27):
because you're generally justsitting around, you know, for
hours and hours.
If you're going virtuallyanywhere from Australia, it's
going to be at least six toeight hours normally, and then
you've got to add on the timethat you're just sitting around
an airport terminal.
So yeah, and the dehydrationthat comes along with that as
well, um often will lead toconstipation and, uh, that sorry
(08:50):
, being sedentary um will alsotrap gas.
So you get that constipation.
But there's also this gastrapping, because when we move
around it actually allows theintestines to move and that
allows the gas to kind of movealong your intestine and either
come out the other end inflatulence or maybe up the top
(09:12):
with burping.
So, yeah, moving aroundactually really helps.
That's why yoga is really goodfor gut health and for reducing
bloating and reducingconstipation and things like
that, because it allows thefecal matter to move around in
your guts.
I don't know if that's a bit toographic as well, but that's how
it is.
And what else did I want to sayabout that?
Yeah, if you're sitting down alot during the day, so if you're
(09:36):
in a desk job, if you're gamingprobably the audience that's
listening to this podcast is notnecessarily gaming, but your
kids might be and if they'resitting down for hours and hours
and hours gaming, then that canlead to gut issues.
We know for sure it leads toconstipation, because kids
ignore the urge to go in and goto the toilet and that will in
(10:00):
itself lead to bloating andother issues, gut infections.
So if you've ever hadsalmonella or you've had like
any sort of, been to adeveloping country and had food
poisoning or anything like that,you will have noticed bloating
and that is caused by yeah, thebacteria.
(10:20):
I've talked a lot about bacteriaand I probably should have
started by talking aboutdysbiosis.
So dysbiosis is the imbalanceof the beneficial and
non-beneficial.
We used to call these goodbacteria and bad bacteria.
We don't do that anymorebecause a lot of the so-called
bad bacteria are supposed to bethere.
They're just supposed to bethere in the correct amount.
(10:41):
So we now call them beneficialand non-beneficial gut bacteria.
So if there is an imbalance inthose and that can be from
antibiotics, it can be againfrom stress, it can be from food
intolerances, all of the thingsI've mentioned already If you
have that dysbiosis, then you'llmost likely get bloating
because the gut bacteria will befermenting and producing the
(11:04):
gas and we often see that in acondition called SIBO, which is
small intestine bacterialovergrowth, and that's when you
have good gut bacteria that haverelocated up into the small
intestine and that can happenwith certain medications, like
acid reducing medications.
(11:25):
It can happen with stress, itcan happen with eating disorders
, it can happen with certain gutinfections like Helicobacter
pylori, it can happen withantibiotic use, like so many
things, and also gallbladderdisease is another one, because
if you've had your gallbladderremoved, for example, or you've
(11:51):
had gallstones or infections orthings like that, then that will
impact your ability to producebile or to get bile into the gut
to break down your fats, andthat can cause bloating as well.
So I've covered a lot ofdifferent causes of the gas, and
this can be upper belly, as Imentioned before, or lower belly
, and that often is an importantsymptom to tell your healthcare
(12:12):
practitioner because that canhelp us locate where the problem
is without necessarily goinginto some really expensive
testing.
And yeah, so upper bellybloating is generally above the
navel.
It's generally going to beafter you eat and there is a
real difference.
Another thing to notice foryour healthcare professional is
(12:36):
is that bloating present whenyou wake up in the morning, or
is your tummy flatter in themorning and tending to get more
bloated or distended after yourfirst meal, or is it later in
the day or is it after dinner?
All of that is really relevantinformation.
So if you're listening to thispodcast and thinking.
(12:57):
This is something I probablyneed to speak to my healthcare
professional about.
If you go in with all of thisinformation even information
about you know when you pass abowel motion does that improve
the bloating?
How often are you passing abowel motion?
Have you had food poisoning inthe past 12 months?
Are you noticing excess burpingor excess flatulence?
Are you noticing undigestedfood in the stool?
(13:20):
Because that is really often acause of bloating, because your
gut bacteria are used to foodcoming down past them in a
certain form.
So if your body's not breakingdown your food at the right
points in your gastrointestinaltract and the food starts
getting broken down right fromwhen it enters your mouth you
(13:41):
have digestive enzymes in yoursaliva and even just chewing
your food really well chewinghas a really good function.
And if you're not chewing yourfood well because you might be
distracted you might be eatingat your desk or in front of the
TV or whatever then if you'renot chewing it that well, when
it gets to the stomach it's in abigger form than the stomach
(14:03):
perhaps can handle and then thatjust follows on all through
your digestive tract.
So chewing your food reallywell makes a huge difference to
your bloating.
So that's something to think ofas well, as are you actually
really chewing your food well orare you throwing everything
down because you're always in ahurry?
Something to think about.
So I think that's all I want totalk about when it comes to
(14:27):
bloat.
So there's a lot.
There's a lot to consider whenwe're looking at bloating and
then the difference between thatand fat.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthat, because, in fact, if you
listen to the belly fat podcastI did two weeks ago, I talked
about visceral fat, right.
So you've got belly fat, whichcan be what we call subcutaneous
(14:49):
, so that's like stuff that'smore soft, generally speaking,
and visceral fat can be a lotharder and you often see a lot
of this in men when you talkabout, like the beer gut, for
example, it's often seems quitehard, and if that is something
that's not changing during theday, then that's probably
visceral fat rather than bloat,and that visceral fat is quite
(15:10):
hard, whereas this moresubcutaneous fat you can
actually grip and it's a bitmalleable.
That is not probably visceralfat.
So the belly fat itself willnot change on a day-to-day basis
or a time of day basis, samewith the visceral fat, and
that's probably the maindifference between your belly
(15:32):
sorry, your bloat and your bellyfat.
Okay, so if you're looking atyour own tummy and going, is
this bloat or is this just fatwhen I say just fat, obviously I
don't mean just fat, becausethat's important to manage as
well.
But yeah, if it's bloating,it's probably going to be
related to some sort of gutbacteria issue or it's fluid
(15:56):
retention.
And if it's fluid retention,you can look at doing things
like reducing salt, increasingwater and also noting when this
happens.
If it's in relation to yourmenstrual cycle, for example,
then that is going to give you alittle bit more insight into
the cause, which can be hormonal.
Or if you have endometriosis,for example, that's definitely
going to cause some bloatingpremenstrually.
(16:17):
So let's talk a little bitabout what to do about it, right
?
So if it's bloating and it'sgas, you probably need to get it
assessed by someone who has aninterest or qualifications in
gut health particularlynaturopaths, certain
nutritionists, certain doctorsvery into it and interested in
it, and can help assess it,often without the need for
(16:41):
extensive testing.
Sometimes testing is reallyimportant, often without the
need for extensive testing.
Sometimes testing is reallyimportant.
I will often get people to do afood journal for a week just to
see if we can notice any kindsof relationships between the
types of food that you're eatingand the incidence of the
bloating.
Often this can also be good fordoing a bit of an elimination.
(17:03):
I'll often ask people toeliminate gluten for a couple of
weeks or dairy for a couple ofweeks, sometimes even eggs
Probably the top threeintolerant or allergic type
foods and often just taking outdairy for a few weeks makes a
huge difference and it can alsomake a difference in brain fog
and skin itching and that sortof stuff as well.
(17:26):
So it's kind of important toidentify it.
If there is an elimination doneand we can't really work out
what it is, there's some testingthat can get done.
You can do skin prick testingthrough your doctor.
You can do hair testing, whichcan be quite good for testing
biocompatibility with differentfoods and household chemicals.
You can also do foodintolerance testing.
(17:51):
There's so many different testswe can do.
We can also test for thingslike SIBO, which is that small
intestine bacterial overgrowth.
We can also do gut microbiometesting and that can be really
cool to see whether your levelsof beneficial bacteria are at
the right place whether yourbalance of beneficial and
non-beneficial are in the rightratios.
(18:14):
We can look at if there arewhat we call opportunistic
bacteria there that can causemajor issues.
If they are, we can look atyour digestive markers and see
if you've got enough of yourdigestive enzymes being produced
.
Also look at your stress levelsand all of the things.
So it's really important.
(18:34):
This is not something bloating,is not something that if someone
has it, that I would considerto be inconsequential.
It does desperately.
Maybe not desperately, butdefinitely need to be addressed.
And generally we can do a lotwith food.
Sometimes we look at thingslike are you drinking lots of
water when you're eating?
(18:55):
That's generally not a greatidea, particularly if you've got
digestive issues.
We can look at ways ofstimulating your own digestive
juices.
Sometimes we need to do alittle bit of work on your gut
bacteria and that can be donewith certain supplements.
It can be done, again, withfood.
So, yeah, there's a lot we cando.
(19:19):
But if it's fat, what can we do?
You know, like, once we workout, is this fat or is this
bloating?
And then if it's fat, thenthere's so much we can do and
generally that's going to befood.
I was doing a little bit ofresearch for this episode and a
lot of the things.
When you Google things likebelly fat Because I'm always
(19:40):
kind of interested in what youknow if I, as a just as a lay
person, was to Google it, what'sgoing to come up and a lot of
the things that came up was howto burn belly fat.
Now, even you know a personaltrainer is going to say to you
if you're looking at weight loss, and particularly around the
belly, it's going to be 80%nutrition and 20% exercise.
(20:01):
You can really do a lot withfood.
You don't have to smashyourself at the gym and I really
don't recommend it,particularly for women over 40,
unless that's already somethingthat you do and you've been
athletic all of your life andit's something you really enjoy,
then sure.
But if you're not someone thatloves the gym, please don't
think you have to smash yourselfat the gym in order to lose
(20:22):
weight, because that is not thetruth.
The food is a way, moreimportant way, to manage this
and particularly if you do haveinjuries, if you have issues
with your joints you know I'vehad so many women come through
my clinic that have put onweight because I've gone to
certain let's call it HIITclasses and they've done their
(20:45):
backs.
They've put their backs outbecause they've just absolutely
gone for it and their body,their core strength, hasn't been
there to support their back orthe exercises have just not been
appropriate for their level offitness and yeah, so then
there's going to be more weightcomes on because there's going
to be inflammation in the body,and then food is going to be one
(21:06):
of your only kind of answers Uh, in terms of exercise, do not
underestimate the power of abrisk walk.
Seriously, um, fat burning zoneis actually a little different
to your cardiovascular oraerobic zone.
So you know, a brisk walk whereyou can just keep a
conversation going is ideal forfat burning.
(21:28):
If you're looking at exercise,obviously resistance training is
great because you're buildingmuscle and muscle burns more
fuel at rest or more energy atrest, so that can be a good way
to burn fat.
But what I have found and I'vehad clients literally say to me
I feel like I've been turnedinto a fat burning machine is, I
mean, obviously, havingpersonalized nutrition.
That's exactly the right thingfor you to reduce inflammation,
(21:51):
to work on your gut health, tomake sure that we are
eliminating the foods that areintolerant for you.
At this point and actually I dowant to talk about that just
briefly If you have foodintolerances, they may not be
(22:11):
forever.
It may be because your gut isjust reactive, because it's
inflamed, even though you maynot have a lot of symptoms in
terms of pain and things likethat.
But if you have bloating, ifyou have either constipation or
diarrhea or you have lots offlatulence, maybe that
flatulence is very smelly, ifyou have lots of burping, all of
these can be addressed oftenwith eliminating certain foods,
(22:33):
but then often we can bring themback in.
Once we heal the gut andsometimes we use some
supplements to help with this aswell you can heal the gut and
that means that you can thenhave some of those foods again,
maybe not in huge amounts, maybeyou can.
It's a bit of a suck it and seeapproach with some of this when
we're reintroducing foods.
(22:54):
But yeah, it's a really.
Please don't lose hope thatyou'll never be going to be able
to have ice cream, for example,again, to be able to have ice
cream, for example, again,because if we do the gut healing
work, then that's absolutelypossible.
Of course, if it's an allergy,that's a little different.
It's a different part of yourimmune system that responds.
(23:14):
An allergy is generally goingto be those more hay fever type
symptoms like runny nose, itchy,soft palate, hives, weeping
eyes, maybe even a little bittightness in the chest or
wheezing.
You definitely don't want topush that and you would probably
have to eliminate those foodsforever.
So yeah, just giving a littlebit of context there.
(23:37):
So yeah, so some of the thingsI've found that work really well
, other than the personalizednutrition plan for burning fat,
is three meals a day, no snacks.
That is probably one of themost important things you can do
in terms of turning yourselfinto a fat burning machine,
because what that does is ithelps keep your blood sugar
(23:57):
level balanced.
Now you do have to have theright amount of protein and
carbs and fats to get in theright space metabolically for
this, so that you're not gettinghungry in between those three
meals.
That's really important.
That's not the objective here.
The objective is to balance theblood glucose so that your
(24:20):
insulin is maintained at anappropriate level.
When your insulin is high, thatputs you in fat storage mode.
If we can get that insulin downin the appropriate ratio with
your blood sugar level andgenerally we can do that by
timing meals and giving yourbody some time to return to a
(24:43):
benchmarked glucose and insulinlevel.
You will burn fat in betweenmeals.
It's awesome.
Another thing is to have yourtwo bites of protein first with
any of your meals.
Two bites of protein will helptrick your body into thinking
you're having a high proteinmeal and it'll slow down that
insulin response and again helpyou to burn fat rather than
(25:06):
store fat.
So that's just two little tips.
There's quite a bit more you cando, but for the purposes of
this podcast, that's where Iwill leave it.
So we've talked about bloating.
We've talked about belly fat.
We've talked about how to burnthat belly fat.
We've talked about what aresome of the causes of bloating.
Now, in terms of managingbloating, that really depends on
(25:30):
the cause.
So I'm not going to go intothat today.
It really depends on the cause.
But if you have any specificquestions you want me to address
about this on the next podcast,please let me know.
More than happy to do that.
So I hope you've enjoyedtoday's podcast.
If you feel like popping me ina little five-star review, I
would absolutely love that.
Enjoy your week.
(25:50):
I will be back on Thursday withQ&A.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple Podcasts, or the follow
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
(26:12):
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
Or if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atsuzygardenwellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
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