Ep. 82 The 5 Myths About Belly Fat in Teens

In this episode, Dr. Jenny Gourgari dives into five common myths about belly fat in teenagers—from sit-ups and detox teas to the truth about carbs and hormones.

 Discover what actually works to reduce belly fat safely and naturally during puberty. 

Perfect for teens and parents who want real answers, not quick fixes.

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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Transcript

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens podcast. This is Dr. Jenny Gourgari, and today I'm talking about one of the most common questions I get from teenagers : what can I do to make belly fat go away? I wanted to devote this episode to talk about five major myths and give you what really works. Myth number one is that if you do sit-ups, that's gonna melt belly fat. There is some truth to that because if you do a lot of sit-ups that, can exercise your abdominal muscles, that is great. Building stronger muscles in your abdomen, arms, legs, back, everywhere that can help with your insulin resistance, that can help with your hormonal balance, so that can improve your overall metabolism. So it's great to do strength training for your whole body. Now, just doing abdominal exercises with the thought that if you do, sit ups belly fat is gonna go away i'm afraid it's not gonna work like that. And the reason is, if you are going to, get into a healthier, weight, your whole body needs strength training. Your whole body needs lower body fat by getting to a healthier weight, that will improve your belly fat eventually. Now, if you are in your ideal weight and you still have some belly fat, building muscle in that area, can make it better. The idea that if you, eat unhealthy, you don't exercise, you don't do any other strength training, you just do, sit ups, your weight doesn't change, you are above your ideal weight, and the belly fat is gonna disappear, that's not gonna work. Myth number two in regards to belly fat for teenagers is that the answer is cut out all the carbs from the diet. Again, this is not right because teenagers need carbohydrates for energy. They need to have carbs to get to a growth spurt. If you don't have enough carbs in your diet, and if you're especially underweight, that can also hinder your height, you may end up being shorter 📍 you miss periods if you're a girl, you may not develop into puberty normally and all those things. So I will tell you though, that it is not eliminating the carbs, but it is more to try to choose carbs that are healthier. That will mean whole food carbs like fruits, brown rice, beans, the amount of complex carbohydrates when you get brown rice instead of white rice, when you get whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta pasta made of lentils versus white flour. replacing simple carbs with complex carbs, eating healthier carbs can help with belly fat. It's not the carb per se, but the type and quantity of carbs that help with belly fat. Myth number three: belly fat is just cosmetic . Truth is besides being cosmetic, doctors, worry about the health implications of belly fat. When you have belly fat, that means there is fat around your liver, and that can create fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease has increased risk for liver fibrosis and liver cirrhosis. You can have severe insulin resistance, and that increases also your risk in the future, not only for chronic liver disease, but also for type two diabetes. Type two diabetes is the type of diabetes that you get after having many years of unhealthy weight, particularly as we call it, visceral fat. 📍 We don't want belly fat because of health implications. And that's really what your goal should be, is to focus on how you can, balance your hormones naturally. If you do that, the belly fat will get better and hormones will get better. Myth number four is that if you have this special diet or this detox tea, or this special drink, then you're going to lose your belly fat. I see that advertising a lot in supplements. The truth is that the supplements that advertise like that can make your belly fat disappear, don't work, they can harm you. They can harm your metabolism. They can harm your mental health because then you don't get the results you wanted, and after this huge deprivation, you may end up overeating. So being consistent and having small daily habits following a healthy lifestyle, eating enough, drinking enough water, sleeping enough, having balanced meals, having the protein . Do sustainable, healthy habits is what is going to get you to the result you want and eventually remove belly fat. Finally is the myth that, 📍 believing I'm like stuck with this belly fat and nothing is gonna change, this is just how my body is, right? The truth is that hormones play a big role into the, distribution of the fat in your body. Like for example, we know that girls that have more estrogens tend to have more, fat in their, hips, compared to boys, that is just a natural, phenomenon. However, that doesn't mean. You are stuck with, belly fat and there's nothing you can do about it. If you want to, get into a healthy weight, have realistic goals and do the things we talked about, sleep, stress, activity, healthy carbohydrates, this can improve your health they can gradually reduce your belly fat your, body has a certain belly fat right now. doesn't mean that this cannot change. A lot of people change every day and you can see your body getting different, even when you go into the growth spur, becoming taller. alone will help your body have a different size. That alone can help the belly fat look different. So don't get disappointed and don't, think that just because. You are this way today, that means this is the way you will be for the rest of your life. If you have that thought, you will never change because you will never take action. You will never start getting into healthy habits needed to get better because you feel nothing can be done. first believe you can change and start implementing those healthy habits. To summarize, the belly fat is not gonna go away just because you do a hundred sits every day. However, consistent strength training exercise can help. Doing quick fixes is not gonna make it with detox diets, it's not gonna make it go away. But if you are making more daily, consistent small habits, that is what is gonna help. It's not only about cosmetic, it has health. Implications if you find this helpful, share it with friends and family. go to lifestyle fourteens.com/free for free resources. sign up for my newsletter where I sent out an email every week. And if you're watching this on YouTube, like and subscribe. See you next week. Take care.