Do you have an extra belly? Do you want to know how to lose or know someone who needs this information? I'm going to teach you what visceral fat is and what you have to do to lose it and have a flat stomach, transforming your body.
Eliminating visceral fat is essential for health and well-being. Start making changes to your lifestyle today that will help you lose this poison. After all, did you know that visceral fat is directly responsible for the increased risk of several diseases?
The most common sign of visceral fat is that growing belly, that beer belly that some call beer belly. So, growing up, it suggests that you have visceral fat, although it could also be peripheral fat there in the subcutaneous part, just under the skin. But more often this occurs because of the deposition of visceral fat.
Visceral fat doesn't hurt, but it is extremely harmful to our body. Those who have, for example, an apple-shaped body have more visceral fat deposition. Those who have a pear-shaped body have greater deposition of subcutaneous fat.
Why is this important? Because these fats are completely different from each other. While visceral fat is associated with several diseases resulting from obesity, peripheral fat, subcutaneous fat, is not.
It even has increased protection against cardiovascular risk. And this peripheral subcutaneous fat is the fat found, for example, in lipedema. So, women with lipedema typically have less visceral fat deposition.
They have an imbalance of being overweight because of fat in general or an increased proportion of fat in general in the body. But with the increase in this fat, which protects against cardiovascular risk, instead of visceral fat, which increases cardiovascular risk, unlike the obese person with a beer belly, who will have the greatest deposition of visceral fat, which brings all the harm. for health.
This visceral fat is also called toxic fat because it produces a lot of substances related to inflammation. It's there, embedded between the organs, so it's not superficial. It's there inside the body.
It could be in or near the heart, it could be in the liver, it could be around the intestine. This fat will increase the production of inflammatory cytokines, which are adipokines. It is also responsible for increasing insulin resistance , being a very metabolically active fat.
It is almost an endocrine organ. This visceral fat is much more common and easier to appear in men than in women. And, unlike subcutaneous fat, it produces much more of these hormones and pro-inflammatory substances.
Visceral fat has been directly linked to several health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Yes, this fat is related to inflammation which, later on, can cause cancer. But not only that, it is also related to cognitive loss, with dementia.
It is related to asthma and hepatic steatosis (fatty liver). In women, it can decrease fertility. It can also cause lower back pain and osteoarthritis.
So, this visceral fat is extremely harmful and we have to fight it with everything possible. Visceral fat in itself is an indication of metabolic syndrome, which is related to high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and a multitude of problems resulting from this fat. Now, you may be wondering why it appears.
Is there something I'm doing wrong? In truth no. It is a deposition of fat due to an intake greater than the expenditure.
Just like that. When movement and expenditure are lower, a sedentary lifestyle and some factors can also increase this fat deposition. You are eating more, you are exposing yourself to a greater amount of calories than you are burning.
And that's what you need to start depositing visceral fat. Now, who is most at risk? As I said, it's men, but not just men.
Women who have already reached menopause and do not have hormonal protection will have a greater deposition of this visceral fat. People who were born with low birth weight (do you know how much weight you had when you were born? I don't know, but those who had this problem are actually more likely) have a genetic predisposition, that is, they have a gene that increases this deposition of visceral fat.
One of the genes is FTO, but there are several others. People who drink a lot of alcohol. Remember: alcohol is also a calorie.
It's not just the fact that it's alcohol, but it's also a calorie that needs to be used up. Want to know what your risk is? I'll put a link at the bottom, in the description, to a cardiovascular risk calculator for you.
So what is the difference between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat? Subcutaneous fat is fat that you can pinch, that you can grab. You won't get visceral fat.
Visceral fat can also exist in thin people, people with a thin body, but who have visceral fat deposition . And this is one of the big problems with the body mass index (BMI) and some others that are not so accurate in identifying obesity. Because you can get a person with a low BMI, but with a large amount of pro-inflammatory visceral fat, which brings disease.
Subcutaneous fat is the fat that can be removed with liposuction. So, returning to the subject of lipedema, if you have the subcutaneous fat caused by lipedema, it is the fat that comes out when liposuction is performed . But remember, this is healthy fat.
This is the fat that is associated with a decrease in cardiovascular risk. There is no surgery to remove visceral fat. Now, how do you know if you have visceral fat?
The best way of all, without a shadow of a doubt, is to take an exam called DEXA, which is an X-ray very similar to bone densitometry. You need to have the appropriate software to be able to assess visceral fat. It's extremely accurate, but not everyone has access to it.
I really like to use bioimpedance in consultations, but not just any bioimpedance will give the amount of visceral fat, it is only segmental bioimpedance. The one you can have at home will show the amount and percentage of total fat, but will not necessarily show visceral fat. Personally, I think it is much more important to know visceral fat than total fat.
Now, another way is to measure. Indirectly, we can assess whether there is already insulin resistance through the HOMA index. And then I find out if there is already damage caused by visceral fat.
But this is a blood test, it has to be ordered by the doctor. Now, what can you do at home to find out whether or not you have visceral fat? You can use a measuring tape and use this tape to measure your waist.
The waist measurement, just above the hip bone, is much more accurate than the body mass index to assess visceral fat. So, we have a cut-off point that, for women, is 80 cm, and for men it is 94 cm, where, from there, the risk increases significantly. Obviously, this measure does not apply to pregnant women or women who have already had surgery.
If you take the measurement and see a high index, what do you have to do? See your doctor, but adjust your lifestyle to get there. And he will help you more and not just tell you the basics, a little more.
I need you to measure your waist and measure your waist-to-hip ratio. Then, you take your waist measurement and divide it by your hip measurement. Values above 0.
85 for women and values above 0. 90 for men suggest a deposition of visceral fat and cardiovascular risk. How much visceral fat is acceptable?
What is normal? 10% of our total body fat can be visceral fat. Now, forget BMI (body mass index) as a measure of obesity.
I already talked about this in a video, it is extremely flawed and it is much more important to know the amount of visceral fat than the amount of weight versus height. Now, what you can do to prevent the appearance of this fat is to stay physically active and eat a healthy diet. Things I keep saying here on the channel, just follow us.
I'm sure you're an intelligent person, who is already following and has been doing so for a while. And now? What do you need to do to prevent the deposition of this visceral fat?
I'm sure you, who are intelligent, are already If you follow here on the channel, you are already doing it, because these are tips that I share here daily. A healthy diet and physical activity are essential. One of the main causes is genetics.
So, those who have the genetics to depose this fat, associated with environmental factors, will be much worse off, much bigger than other people. A poor diet, rich in fats, sugars, a very inflammatory diet or a sedentary lifestyle negatively influence this. One thing everyone forgets is stress.
Stress causes our body to release a hormone called cortisol, which is the “fight or flight” hormone. This stress, when we are in a situation like this, makes our body understand that it has to store energy. So, people who experience constant stress will have greater energy storage, often in the bad form of visceral fat.
And then you might be wondering: "That fat is already there. Is it easy to lose? " Well, visceral fat is one of the easiest fats to lose, because it is metabolized very quickly.
So if you adjust your lifestyle with diet and exercise, it's the first to go. In around 2 to 3 months, you will already have this benefit. So, what you might be wondering is what you can do to reduce this visceral fat.
I will teach you the best way to lose visceral fat and lose weight. When you start losing weight, you start losing visceral fat first. So, fix your diet, start exercising.
You don't have to be a marathon runner or do heavy exercise. Start with lighter things. It could be a walk.
It's a few steps away, just open the door and go out. There's no need to complain that there's a cost, because there isn't. Even though you will see someone on social media talking about the main exercise to lose abdominal fat, to lose visceral fat, there is no specific exercise that will only remove fat from there.
Don't keep looking for that magic pill or that small change that will change everything in your life and the deposition of body fat, because there's no way around it, it's a holistic change, a change in your entire lifestyle. Accept that we cannot change our genetics. If you were born with this genetics, the most you can do is change the environmental factors, what is externally influencing you, and it is up to you to do that.
Put at least 30 minutes of exercise a day into your life. A famous and well-used exercise is HIIT (high intensity training), but that doesn't mean it's the only one that will help you lose visceral fat, no. The best exercise there is is the one you like to do and will do every day.
There's no point in me saying something you don't like and then you do it for a week and give up. Consume a healthy diet. A healthy diet can be a diet rich in lean proteins, with plenty of vegetables, legumes, whole grains, limiting trans fats and reducing sugars even further.
But it can also be a ketogenic diet, which removes all carbohydrates, a low carb diet, for example. Intermittent fasting itself may also be easier to do for some people and may have benefits. Don't smoke.
This is kind of obvious here, so I won't dwell on it too much. But if you smoke, quitting is essential. Now, if you don't smoke, stay away from these habits.
Avoid and greatly reduce sugary drinks or alcoholic beverages. There are a lot of calories in there. Get enough sleep .
Sleep hygiene is essential. Does this affect your stress? Does it affect cortisol levels ?
Does it affect how your body deals with inflammation? I have an entire video talking about sleep hygiene. Chronic stress itself can increase the deposition of visceral fat.
So, do meditation, yoga or deep breathing exercises to reduce this level of stress. Change the environment you live in for the better and only when you do all this will you be on the right path to combating visceral fat, which is extremely harmful to your health. To understand this better, I will show in the next video how obesity affects your circulation, veins and arteries.
