Hello everyone.
All my life I have been a pear. I've always stored weight in my thighs, hips, lower stomach and butt. My stomach/upper body (other than upper arms) has never been a place where my body stores fat.

I am writing this because I am becomming alarmed, that the way my body is storing fat seems to be changing. up until recently my body shape has been the same as it always been, only slimmer. The past few days I've really started to notice that my usual high fat areas - thighs, butt, and lower stomach have all looked much, much slimmer. Of course, at first I was excited, I could fit into jeans that just a few days ago were tight. However, I soon started to notice I didn't really lose the fat, it only moved because my stomach looked much larger!

Before, my ribs were clearly visable and when I held in my stomach there was a pronounced indentations all around my ribcage and ribs clearly defined -- my upper body looked like I wasn't overweight more than 10 pounds, at most. Now, there is almost like a beer belly there, almost like I am pregnant. Even when I stuck in my stomach while lying down, I can't get my ribs to "stick out" like they used to (i could almost "pinch" the underside of my ribcage). The best I can get is my stomach to appear flat.

In short, my body seems to be changing from pear to apple. Fat is "moving" from my thighs, butt, and lower stomach to the stomach region of below ribs and above the navel.

This is very, very scary for me, not so much because of aesthetical reasons, but because health wise visceral fat tends to be an indicator of poor health.

Has anyone else experienced this before? Is it temporary? Why on earth would my body move fat to my stomach area? I am open to all suggestions. I just have no idea why this would happen...

(I should also mention that lately I have been very, very stressed and even a little depressed. Also I have been experiencing a tightness in my lungs/chest/throat, and breathing has sometimes been strained. If you think this has anything to do with whats going on don't hesitate to say something...)