Having a big belly when you’re not actually fat is a huge frustration for a lot of people. When you work hard to lose weight and you work hard to cut down belly fat and then, after all that work, you still have a big belly, it can be very disheartening.

If it seems that every time you eat you suffer bloating and look fat even though you're actually not, you may think to yourself, “Is just me” or “Is this diet working”?

The truth is, a lot of people face this issue. It can be something easy to fix such as intolerance to certain foods but left to its own devices, over time it can become something much more serious. Either way, it is important to get to the bottom of it.

As a matter of fact, I suffered from it and, through bio-hacking, I’ve managed to understand what is going on in my own body and I've helped a lot of people reverse bloating in their bodies.

What To Do When You Have a Big Belly But You're Not Actually Fat

There are a number of reasons why you might have a big belly that aren’t about visceral fat; the fat stored around your vital organs. Some people will have one of these issues, some people will have many of these issues; it really just depends on the individual. To understand what is going on, we need to breakdown the reason(s) you may have a lot of distension within your belly.

First of all, this bloating might come from irritation. If you have a lot of irritation within your gastrointestinal system then this will cause distension. This irritation is going to be caused by an inflammatory problem within the gut lining. This inflammatory problem is very dangerous because it can occur for years and years before being diagnosed as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease or any of the major inflammatory issues within the gastrointestinal system. It starts as an inflammatory problem but eventually this can set off a cascade of many different events that cause a lot of distension in the gut.

If you're someone who is getting a lot of bloating you may have a lot of irritation within the gut lining and it's very important to work to reverse this.

Your doctor might suggest lowering sodium to decrease the fluid, or they might put a patient on diuretics. Sometimes they also drain out the fluid. Often, the problem is temporarily solved but, two or three weeks later, the patient is back for re-treatment.

The process within The Possible You helps to identify the causes of bloating. Together, we work through solutions to reverse this condition. Often it is something we can deal with through a nutritional approach but it is important to identify the underlying cause so we are choosing the best treatment.

The first thing we like to do is try a nutritional approach. The medicinal approach hasn’t proven to work as effectively and can present a lot of different side effects that you don't want.

Next we look at bacteria.

Bacteria is a problem that many people face and it’s really just because of an unhealthy lifestyle causing disfunction within the gastrointestinal system. Much of the bacteria that should be staying within the large intestine makes its way to the small intestines and as a result you get a lot of bloating. It seems that no matter what you eat, you get a whole bunch of bloating and distension. Simply starting to eat a “healthy diet” doesn’t necessarily fix the problem. Pretty much any starchy fibres, any vegetables, can cause this issue to become worse. It can be really difficult to reverse it even when you're behaving and eating “right”, it can take some time - it doesn't happen easily.

As a matter of fact, when it comes to any of these different gastrointestinal issues that lead to distention, they're not an overnight fix. We have to get the bacteria flushed from the small intestines and back into the large intestines where it belongs and keep it there to avoid fermentation of food in our gut.

One reason that bacterial bloating is really dangerous is because it leads to many different vitamin deficiencies. Even if you’re eating nutritious foods, the bacteria starts to eat all the nutrition so as a result you are not getting it and you’re suffering a nutritional deficiency.

Acidity is another important factor to consider.

This is a pH problem within the gut that a lot of people face. Some of the symptoms to look out for are excessive burping. If you're someone who, after you eat a meal finds that it just sits in your stomach like a rock, and it feels really heavy and you have this enormous full feeling for a couple hours and then it just goes away completely and you're hungry, this is due to an acidity problem. Your gut is having a hard time breaking down your food because your stomach is too alkaline. As a result, it causes a lot of distension and it also leads to many other problems because the pH of your stomach should be acting as a trigger to set off a number of other functions within the gastrointestinal system. When that pH's off, some of these functions don't occur and as a result you end up with a lot of distension and a lot of bloating; you don't feel well in that you can't break down your food. A lot of times people who have this issue have a hard time with meat; you eat meat and it just feels like a boulder in your stomach.

Another symptom may be that you're eating salad and, (Look away now if you’re squeamish) when your salad comes out, it basically looks the same as it did when it went in. You’re just not breaking that food down.

That naturally, brings us to digestion.

When we say digestion, what we’re referring to is the ability to actually breakdown your food so that it can be utilised in your body for nutrition. Some people don't have the proper elements within their gut in order to breakdown the food. What happens when you can't breakdown food is it sits in your gut and it ferments. That fermentation causes excessive bloating. What we have to do is make sure that we've put in the proper elements to start breaking our food down right. The entire digestion process is important from the moment the food enters your mouth.

The next possible cause of bloating is food sensitivity.

Some people have a sensitivity to food simply because their immune system decides, “I don't like that food”. It can be because you have an inflammatory irritation issue within the gut or it can be due to immune dysregulation.

It can be due to a lot of different problems but the fact is,  your body doesn't like what your body doesn't like.

Basically, what will happen within 24 to 48 hours of consuming suspect foods is you will find that you have the discomfort of distension from that particular food. It isn’t only sugar or carbohydrates that cause distension. That cause can be something as healthy as a strawberry, a blueberry, a vegetable... Food sensitivities are confusing because they’re not obvious; we don't know immediately what they are. The best way to actually track what is bothering us is to chart what we’re eating and how we feel afterwards. A food chart makes it easier to correlate what food is causing distension and then remove that from our diet.

So far we’ve looked at the more common causes of bloating. A smaller percentage of people with bloating and distension are suffering from ascites. Ascites occurs when you have a severe liver problem. With Ascites you can have excessive swelling and distension in the gut simply because the scarring in the liver is causing the fluid to increase in the vessels in the liver and then push fluid into the abdominal cavity. If you get a whole bunch of fluid in the abdominal cavity it's likely that you have serious liver problems.

This isn't somebody who has a minor fatty liver. This is something to take seriously.

Many people today have fatty liver that is actually leading to severe liver degeneration. If you're having this problem you might have advanced liver damage.

Here are some different scenarios as to why you might be having this problem with some different symptoms associated with this. It is really critical to identify this is an issue for you because if you have these symptoms, you really need to go see your doctor.

If you have;

• sudden weight gain
• decreased appetite
• abdominal pain
• nausea
• vomiting and then heartburn.

If you're having these different symptoms and then your belly is distended you need to visit your doctor. There is a good chance this is associated with some pretty deep liver damage and you need to work with your doctor to start implementing a lot of different nutritional protocols.

At an early stage, we can help reverse a fatty liver to help prevent cirrhosis of the liver. We can also coach you through adopting a healthier lifestyle to help with the problem.

The Possible You helps you identify the underlying issues of your bloating and creates a plan in order to fix the problem. We understand the complexity of these issues. Whether it's inflammation or it's pH and alkalinity or if it's a problem with bacterial overgrowth, we’ll create a plan and monitor it to make sure we’re resetting your system to prevent issues like this from are occurring.

It is important to remember that this condition doesn't happen overnight; it takes years to develop. Often it is asymptomatic; you won't even have any symptoms until it is well advanced. Another important thing to remember is, it took time to develop and it will take time to recover.

A couple of good starting points are:

Cutting out sugar.

Sugar pretty much just messes all of this up so we want to make sure that we're cutting out sugar. And, that pretty much goes for any health problems that you're facing.

Remove the food sensitivities.

Journal and chart your food. When you chart your food, you realise what particular foods are causing you to have a lot of distension. Once you remove them from your diet you can isolate whether they are a source of your problem. Once you remove them you're going to be way better off for it and you're going to feel so much better.

The gut is a very difficult thing to work with. There's so little understanding of gut issues because of years of incorrect information. What the television is advising you to use to correct your gut problems is usually the opposite of what really works.

It also can be very difficult to stay the course because treatment of these issues can take time. The Possible You is all about coaching you to help you have a much-improved chance of creating a new, healthier lifestyle.

The Possible You provides a pathway for you that will actually help you reduce bloating and allow your body to be more receptive to the nutrition you should be getting from your food.