Subcutaneous fat is the fat under your skin—the kind you can pinch. It keeps you warm and stores energy. Your muscles are below, and organs such as the liver, kidneys and intestines (colon) are deeper. Visceral fat is the fat that surrounds these organs. It is also known as belly fat or intra-abdominal fat, because the fat is located inside your abdominal cavity.
Visceral fat cushions your organs. Unlike subcutaneous fat, you can’t see or feel it. Visceral fat makes up about 10-15% of total body fat. While your body needs a certain amount of visceral fat to stay healthy, too much can cause or increase the risk of certain health conditions. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle through factors such as diet and exercise can help prevent this.
Many factors, such as lifestyle, genetics and hormones, contribute to the accumulation of visceral fat. Despite the risks of having too much, visceral fat has an important role in your body, serving as a backup energy reserve, providing protection and supporting various body processes.
If you eat more food than your body needs, it is stored as adipose tissue (body fat), including visceral fat. When your body needs more energy and food is not available, it can use these energy reserves.
Visceral fat also protects your organs because it surrounds them and is active in your body. This type of fat produces certain hormones and chemicals that affect metabolism and other bodily functions. Scientists have discovered that fat tissue generally produces over 50 hormones and other chemicals.
Although some visceral fat is necessary, it can accumulate beyond healthy levels. Modifiable (modifiable) risk factors such as your lifestyle habits and non-modifiable risk factors such as age, genetics and assigned gender can affect the amount of visceral fat.
Life habits
The food you eat, how often you move your body, and how much sleep you get all affect where your body stores fat. All of these lifestyle factors can increase your risk of gaining visceral fat:
- A diet rich in processed and packaged foods
- Sedentary lifestyle and not moving the body often
- Excessive consumption of alcohol
- Lack of sleep, which often causes overeating as a way to get extra energy in the form of food
Age, genetics and gender
Some factors that cause visceral fat are beyond your control. You can inherit genes or traits from your parents that control your appetite, metabolism, and how your body stores fat. As a result, you may be predisposed to store more fat around your belly instead of elsewhere in your body.
People assigned male at birth are also more likely to store visceral abdominal fat than premenopausal women.
Age also plays a role. As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and have hormonal changes that cause them to store more fat around their abdomen. This is especially true among postmenopausal women.
Body fat is not the same, especially when it comes to health risks. Unlike subcutaneous fat, too much visceral fat around your organs can lead to complications that put you at greater risk for certain diseases.
Metabolic syndrome is one of the main conditions associated with high visceral fat. Metabolic syndrome is a group of health problems that often occur together, causing concerns such as:
- High blood pressure
- High blood sugar
- Extra body fat around the waist
- Abnormal cholesterol levels
Metabolic syndrome also increases the risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease – both of which can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Too much visceral fat can also cause or worsen other health conditions, including:
- Fatty liver disease and cirrhosis
- Colon, pancreatic and breast cancer
- Sleep apnea
- Kidney disease
- Early death or shortened lifespan
If you know how much visceral fat you have, imaging tests are often needed. If you want to take a general measurement at home, try measuring your waist size.
Simply wrap the tape measure around your waist at navel level. A waist circumference over 35 inches (88 centimeters) in women or 40 inches (102 centimeters) in men may indicate excess visceral fat and a higher risk of disease.
To get a more accurate reading, you can compare your waist circumference to your height. Divide your waist size by your height. A ratio of less than 0.5 is ideal. If a person assigned female at birth is 5 feet 4 inches (64 inches) tall with a waist circumference of 33 inches, the ratio would be 0.52, indicating a higher risk of certain conditions.
Other medical methods can also help you and your doctor learn more about your visceral fat levels and give you more detailed results about your overall body composition. This includes:
- Computed tomography (CT).
- magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Ultrasound
- Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan
- Three-dimensional (3D) body scan
Factors such as body frame size and muscle mass can sometimes affect these measurements. Your doctor can interpret and explain these results in the context of your overall health profile.
If you’ve measured your waist or gone for a medical test and discovered that you have a higher amount of visceral fat, you can take steps to reduce it. It can also reduce the risk of developing certain health conditions. Losing visceral fat can be as challenging as any other weight loss, but small, sustainable changes in your daily life can help you succeed.
Diet
Certain meal plans are more effective than others for losing visceral fat. Many diets can help you lose visceral fat, and it’s important to choose one that you enjoy and can maintain. Here are some options:
- Intermittent Fasting (IF): Intermittent fasting reduces the number of hours a day you eat. The most common method is to eat during an eight-hour period and fast for the remaining 16 hours. IF has been shown to naturally reduce the amount of food you eat, which can lead to overall weight loss.
- Protein Pacing: Combining IF with protein pacing can be an even more effective way to lose visceral fat. Protein pacing means spreading your protein intake throughout the day, rather than consuming it in one meal. Research shows that people following this combined method lost almost twice as much visceral fat as those on a standard calorie-restricted diet.
- A low-fat vegan diet: This diet eliminates all animal products and instead focuses on nutrient-dense plant foods. People following this diet have been shown to lose a significant amount of total body fat and visceral fat.
- Ketogenic (keto) diet: In a study comparing this diet to beinaglutide (a weight loss drug), the keto diet led to greater loss of visceral fat and improvements in blood pressure and blood sugar.
Talk to your doctor before making any significant dietary changes, especially if you have existing health problems, as these diets may affect individuals differently.
Exercise
When it comes to exercise for fat loss, the type of exercise is important. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is one of the best forms of exercise for reducing visceral fat levels. HIIT involves short bursts of intense exercise followed by short periods of rest. You can sprint for 30 seconds, walk for a minute and repeat this cycle several times.
Aerobic exercise is also good for visceral fat loss. Some examples of aerobic exercise include:
Combining aerobic exercise or HIIT with strength training can give you even more benefits when losing visceral fat. Lifting weights alone may not be as effective for visceral fat loss.
Other lifestyle changes
Getting enough sleep is a lifestyle change that can help reduce visceral fat. Aim for at least eight hours a night.
Cutting back on alcohol may also help, as binge drinking and binge drinking are associated with higher levels of visceral fat. Even moderate alcohol consumption can affect where your body stores fat, so limiting alcohol intake can be an effective way to manage visceral fat.
If you’re concerned that you have too much visceral fat, or you’ve measured yourself at home and it’s high, make an appointment with your doctor.
They may perform a more detailed health assessment, such as blood tests, to check for related conditions such as high cholesterol or diabetes. Your healthcare provider can also help you manage these conditions and start your weight loss journey.
Your healthcare provider can also refer you to a nutritionist to develop an eating plan that works for you or an exercise specialist to help you create a safe exercise routine that fits your lifestyle and goals. If these methods don’t work for you, they can discuss other weight loss options with you, including weight loss medications or bariatric surgery.
Visceral fat is a type of body fat that is found around the internal organs of your body. Although necessary, too much visceral fat can increase the risk of several health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
The main causes of excess visceral fat include lifestyle, genetics and age. Adjusting your diet and incorporating more exercise into your routine can reduce visceral fat, reduce your risk of disease, and improve your overall health.