The extra fat around our waist itself is the culprit behind the bulging belly.

A new study reveals that excess fat in the abdomen makes one hungrier, which in turn leads to the accumulation of even more fat in that area.

The study, which might change the way we think about and treat abdominal obesity, found that abdominal fat tissue reproduced a hormone that stimulated fat cell production.

Experts at The University of Western Ontario have identified that the hormone Neuropeptide Y (NPY), believed to be produced only by the brain, was also reproduced by abdominal fat tissue. NPY is the most potent appetite stimulating hormone known, which sends signals to the individual that they are constantly hungry.

Traditional belief has it that a prime reason behind overweight people eating more food was because their brains produced the hormone NPY in excessive amounts. But Dr Yaiping Yang and his colleagues, who carried out the study on obese rats, has provided evidences that NPY is also produced locally by abdominal fat.

''This may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle, and then that fat produces more NYP hormone which leads to even more fat cells,'' Dr Yang said.

He believed that the findings, reported in a recent issue of The FASEB Journal, would lead to new therapeutic targets for combating obesity.