Fat provides plenty of benefits to the body: It aids in the absorption and storage of nutrients, maintains body temperature, stores energy, cushions your vital organs, and keeps your hair and nails healthy and strong. Yet with the benefits of fat come the cons–how it looks and how it affects your health. Many factors contribute to the storage of excess fat around the lower abdomen that is associated with fat rolls.
Age
As you get older, various changes take place throughout your body that accelerate the collection of fat around your midsection. For example, research reported by the Mayo Clinic says your metabolism slows down as you age. Consequently, you burn fewer calories while at rest, causing extra calories to store at your hips, thighs, arms, legs and stomach in the form of fat.
Heredity
According to research provided by the Harvard Medical School from the April 2006 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, specific genes within your DNA define how many fat cells your body will produce as well as which areas of the body they will populate. Therefore, if your parents, or extended family, have a history of fat gathering mostly around the lower stomach and in the form of rolls, or ripples, then you are more likely to inherit the same, or similar, type of fat distribution and development.
Hormone Changes
Following menopause, the Mayo Clinic explains, women experience greater gains in fat due to variations in hormones that redefine how their bodies store and break down fatty nutrients. The Harvard Medical School website says estrogen–the female hormone–begins to produce at a slower rate as androgen–the male hormone–increases in production. This change may cause boosts in the stress hormone cortisol, which is linked to fat accumulation in the abdominal region.
Dietary Changes
Along with aging, heredity and hormones, your everyday dietary choices can influence how much fat your body stores. Based on Sept. 2, 2009, research published in The Journal of Nutrition, a diet high in whole-grain can reduce fat deposits in the lower abdomen of elderly individuals. Particularly, cereal fiber outperformed vegetable and fruit fiber in terms of the body mass composition of fat versus muscle.
Abdominal Structure
The sculpting of the abs in combination with weight gain is truly the culprit behind the rolls of fat that appear in your midsection. Without abs, you would possess a more bulbous-looking belly, but with abs, the subcutaneous fat–that is, the fat between the abdominal muscles and the skin–appears more separated into distinct regions of fat, or rolls. Nevertheless, the Mayo Clinic says that, with enough exercise and proper nutrition, you can reduce the appearance of fat rolls on your lower stomach.
About this Author
Sky Smith has been writing on psychology, electronics, health, and fitness since 2002. He graduated from the University of Florida with honors in 2005, earning a B.S. in psychology and statistics with a minor in math. He writes articles for LIVESTRONG and eHow.
