6 Research Proven Strategies To REDUCE Visceral Fat!

Visceral fat is the unhealthy, deep belly fat that wraps around your vital organs, and is extremely damaging to your health.

Visceral Fat is linked to:

→ Insulin Resistance
→ Certain Cancers
→ Heart Disease
→ Diabetes

In this article, I'm going to share 6 research proven strategies to help you reduce visceral fat.

With 70% of adults in the US being overweight, this information is important!

So let's dive in…

Why Is Visceral Fat So Damaging?

Visceral fat is different from subcutaneous fat (The fat you can pinch on your belly), and more dangerous to our health, in a few ways:

It's inflammatory by nature

The visceral fat cells actually release inflammatory cytokines that lead to systemic inflammation AND additional visceral fat accumulation.

It gets less blood flow

The difference in blood flow between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat means it's harder to burn visceral fat with steady state cardio alone.

To reduce visceral fat, you need a combination of the 6 strategies below, including the right type of cardio exercise.

It has more receptors for stress hormones

Stress hormones include cortisol and adrenaline.

This increase in receptors is likely an ancestral function for storing fat that is no longer beneficial in our time of abundance.

It has a close correlation to disease

Mostly through the increase in bodily inflammation, visceral fat is linked to:

→ Insulin Resistance
→ Certain Cancers
→ Heart Disease
→ Diabetes

That highlights the importance of keeping visceral fat as low as possible.

Here are the 6 proven strategies to help you reduce visceral fat!

1. A High Protein Diet

A high protein diet supports lean muscle mass, keeps you full longer, and increases your metabolic rate.

The research from a study entitled “Effect of Protein Intake on Visceral Abdominal Fat…”, in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2015), shows that those on a higher protein diet lost more visceral fat than those on a lower protein diet.

So the recommendation is to consume 1.5g of protein per Kg, or 0.7g per lb of body weight each day.

For a 200lb man, that’s 140g/day. If you’re 150lbs, it's around 100g/day.

To make sure you're able to hit this higher protein intake, plan for each meal to have around 30-40g of protein.

For breakfast, this could be 3 eggs (20g protein) + 7-ounces (200-gram) of unsweetened greek yogurt, with fruit (20g protein).

For lunch this could be a protein shake, and for dinner, 6 ounces of chicken breast, salmon, or turkey mince.

2a. Time Restricted Eating (Intermittent Fasting)

Time restricted eating is a condensed period of eating, often 8 hours, combined with a period of fasting, often 16 hours, within each 24-hour day.

The benefits include:

→ Reduced insulin levels prompting the body to use stored fat (including visceral fat) for energy.

→ Increased autophagy, a cellular cleanup process that improves metabolic health.

In a study called Time-restricted eating with or without low-carbohydrate diet reduces visceral fat and improves metabolic syndrome published in Cell Reports, participants saw a 4% decrease in visceral fat in just 12 weeks!

The only difference in this particular study was this condensed period of eating. There was no restriction on calories consumed.

2b. 24-Hour Fasting

An alternative to intermittent fasting, is a 24-hour fast, 1-2 times per week.

This is what I do, and is what I recommend in my Fit Father programs.

A research study published in the journal “Obesity” by “Leibel et al. (2012)” demonstrated a significant reduction in visceral fat of around 7% in participants following an alternate-day fasting regimen compared to a calorie restriction group.

These longer fasting periods increase the amount of deep fat that's liberated for energy.

3. HIIT Workouts

High Intensity Interval Training is a workout that alternates short bursts of activity with short periods of rest.

HIIT triggers excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which increases calorie burn for hours after exercise.

It also improves insulin sensitivity which supports the loss of visceral fat.

A meta-analysis titled, “High-Intensity Interval Training Versus Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training for Reducing Visceral Fat”, in the Journal of Obesity (2018) recommends 3 sessions per week of HIIT training, using the protocol of 30 seconds high intensity, then 60 seconds of low intensity.

Doing this for a total of 20 minutes per session will adequately stimulate your metabolism, and release visceral fat stores.

4. Gut & Digestive Health

There is a very clear connection between gut & digestive health, and visceral fat.

With all the ultra-processed foods in our supermarkets today, we're subjected to increasing amounts of sugar, and also pesticides used on non-organic foods (Glyphosate).

Both of these change your gut microbiome, which leads to systemic inflammation that is linked to visceral fat gain.

A study in Nature (2014) by Dr. Eran Elinav, Dr. Eran Segal, et al. titled Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota showed that artificial sweeteners altered gut microbiota and led to a 30% increase in glucose intolerance within one week.

To improve your gut microbiome, you should make sure you're consuming foods high in probiotics. These include kombucha, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, yogurt, kefir, and sourdough bread.

You can also take probiotic supplements. An article titled Effects of Probiotics and Synbiotics on Weight Loss in Subjects with Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Review recommends the use of 2 strains of probiotics in particular, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.

The suggested dosage is 10 Billion CFUs of each of these probiotic strains.

5. Sleep & Stress Management

To decrease visceral fat, you must prioritize sleep quality and stress management.

In my earlier point, I showed you that visceral fat has more receptors for stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline.

Not getting enough sleep disrupts your hormone levels, particularly cortisol. Increased cortisol is picked up by these receptors, and they tell your body to hold on to more visceral fat.

A lack of sleep also disrupts your appetite regulating hormones, Leptin and Ghrelin. When you sleep, Leptin increases, while Ghrelin decreases.

When Ghrelin is low, it indicates you're full, so there's no need to eat. If this is disrupted, you're more likely to snack throughout the day.

Prioritize good sleep by having a set bedtime each day that ensures 7-8 hours of quality sleep. Also, reduce your light exposure at night, and catch up on sleep when you have more time over the weekend.

A study titled Sleep Deprivation: Effects on Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance goes deep into each of these key points.

6. Cold Exposure

You've probably seen the trend among health and biohacking influencers about cold plunges. Although I am a believer in the benefits, it's not just cold-plunging that I'm talking about in this point.

Cold showers, sleeping in a colder room, or going outside in lower temperatures in minimal clothing are all ways you can expose yourself to the cold, and reap the benefits.

The reason cold exposure is so beneficial in reducing visceral fat, is that it activates another type of fat, called brown adipose tissue, which specifically targets visceral fat stores.

It does this by increasing our core temperature and boosting our metabolism in times of cold exposure. It also helps to burn the calories from food intake, faster.

A study titled Brown adipose tissue-derived MaR2 contributes to cold-induced resolution of inflammation, published in the journal Nature Medicine shows that the beneficial effects of cold exposure on improving obesity-induced inflammation and insulin resistance depend on brown adipose tissue (BAT).