Visceral Fat: Why It’s Dangerous and How to Reverse It
⚠️ This article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet, exercise routine, supplements, or treatment plan, especially if you have any existing medical conditions or are taking medication.
Fixing Visceral Fat: A Comprehensive Analysis
This is a comprehensive overview of the discussion regarding visceral fat, its risks, and a 10-step action plan to reduce it, drawn from the provided video transcript.
Mike Mutzel, a world-renowned metabolic expert and founder of Highintensity Health, provides a simple 10-step action plan designed to reduce visceral fat. He suggests it is very possible to get rid of visceral fat in just 30 days by following this strategy.
The Danger of Visceral Fat
Visceral fat is a dangerous type of fat that hides deep around our organs. It is not inert or benign; it actively releases toxic cytokines that lead to inflammation, insulin resistance, and disease.
Visceral fat is strongly linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, strokes, and diabetes. This type of abdominal fat is particularly concerning because the fat tissue around the abdomen (intraabdominal fat) is enriched in immune cells, including monocytes, macrophages, and t-lymphocytes. These immune cells release pro-inflammatory signaling molecules (interleukins and cytokines), causing low-grade systemic inflammation near crucial metabolic organs like the liver, heart, and pancreas. This inflammatory process is the direct cause of atherosclerosis and the progressive narrowing of arteries.
Furthermore, these immune cells cause other cells to behave aberrantly, accelerating cellular aging from the abdominal region out throughout the peripheral of the body, leading to an accelerated pace of biologic aging.
It is important to note that visceral fat is not exclusive to the visibly overweight; 20 to 25% of so-called lean or skinny people have this metabolically unhealthy fat.
Hormones and Fat Partitioning
While it is impossible to completely disentangle calories from the discussion of weight loss, hormonal influence plays a massive role in partitioning where those calories go.
Cortisol: Increased stress can lead to the production of localized cortisol from fat tissue.
Sex Hormones: In men, fat cells release the enzyme aromatase, which converts testosterone into estrogen.
DHEA: DHEA (dihydroepiandrosterone), a precursor to testosterone and estrogen, often declines first in both men and women as they age. Supplementation is suggested, especially for women during peri- and post-menopause when the ovaries stop making androgens, as DHEA may also help inhibit cortisol release and improve sleep.
Testing Metabolic Health
To understand overall metabolic health, it is recommended to conduct both fasted and non-fasted blood work.
Fasted Labs: Check for fasted insulin, liver enzymes (ALT, AS, GGGT), hemoglobin A1C, triglycerides, and apo A1 ratio. A high fasting insulin (above five or seven units) is a red flag.
Non-Fasted Labs: Since atherosclerosis and insulin resistance are post-meal phenomena, repeat labs (insulin, glucose, A1C, liver enzymes, triglycerides) should be performed about 90 minutes after a habitual meal.
Triglycerides: A doubling of triglycerides in the post-meal window compared to the fasted state suggests insulin resistance and metabolic dyslipidemia. High post-meal triglyceride levels (hypertriglyceridemia, defined as over 200 mg/dL, or 220 mg/dL as a threshold) are statistically associated with cardiovascular disease, possibly more so than LDL cholesterol.
Visceral fat itself can be measured via DEXA or MRI. Ideally, one should have less than a pound of visceral fat.
The 10-Step Action Plan (Lifestyle Fixes)
The lifestyle fixes necessary to reduce visceral fat are relatively easy to implement.
1. Exercise (The Most Important Lever)
Exercise is hands down the most important thing you can do to reduce visceral fat, possibly outweighing the importance of diet. A combination of aerobic training, HIIT training, and resistance training is highly effective.
Resistance Training: Should be done a minimum of three days per week, ideally four or five. Focus on compound movements (moving two or more joints at the same time), such as squats, deadlifts, cleans, presses, and bench press, as these engage the core and offer brain benefits, including preventing age-related cognitive decline.
General Movement: Aim for 9,000 to 12,000 steps per day, dispersed throughout the day.
Intensity/Sprinting: Intensity matters. Beginners should start with a month of walking (15,000 steps/day) to build an aerobic base. Sprints can be implemented as hill sprints, or high-intensity bursts (focused on power/watts) on low-impact machines like the Concept 2 rower or Ski Erg.
V2 Max: Testing V2 max regularly is encouraged, as it is the best functional test for the integration of the cardiovascular, respiratory, neurologic, and musculoskeletal systems.
2. Carbohydrates (Carb Timing)
Carb timing is the most important factor regarding carbohydrate consumption.
Timing: Strategically time carbohydrates around exercise (intra-workout or post-exercise) so they are used to replenish muscle glycogen.
Quantity: For someone new aiming to lose weight, 30 to 60 grams of carbs per day is safe. An ideal upper limit is probably less than 50 grams per day. Variability is better than dogmatic restriction, so include some lower carb days (25-30g) and some higher carb days (north of 100g).
Sources: Health-promoting carbs include fruit, tubers, sprouted rice, and sourdough bread.
Carnivore Diet: The carnivore diet is fine, especially for those with autoimmunity or gastrointestinal issues (Crohn's, ulcerative colitis). Carnivores need fattier cuts of meat to meet caloric needs, particularly if exercising.
3. Healthy Fats
The best fats recommended are animal fats, such as butter, tallow, and lard. Other healthy sources include avocado, coconut fat/oil, and olive oil. It is advised to avoid refined seed oils (cotton seed, canola). Focus on fat sources from whole foods rather than adding a lot of liquid fat or fried foods, which are considered the most problematic fats.
4. Protein
The suggested intake is one gram per pound of ideal body weight, possibly increasing up to 1.5g or 2g per pound for those who are very active, new to exercise, or recovering from injury. Protein requirements often need to be increased with age due to sarcopenia (muscle loss).
5. Meal Timing and Snacking
From a circadian rhythm perspective, the gastrointestinal tract is primed to receive nutrients in the middle part of the day. Therefore, the more calories you can have earlier in the day, the better you will be in terms of overall body composition.
Frequency: Most sedentary people can do well with one to two meals per day; three meals are fine for those exercising a lot. Focus on a solid lunch and a decent-sized dinner, rather than fasting all day and having one massive meal.
Fasting: For those with a lot of weight to lose, compressing the feeding window is important. For lean individuals trying to build muscle, opening the feeding window is advised.
Snacking: Snacking is not necessarily as problematic as often claimed, especially if the individual is moving and the snack is primarily protein (e.g., a protein shake or cottage cheese before bed).
6. Harnessing Autophagy
Autophagy (cellular cleaning) is important, but often misunderstood. Exercise is hands down the best way to increase health-promoting autophagy. Studies show that people who exercise (high V2 max) and fast achieve significantly higher autophagy initiation proteins than non-exercisers who fast for the same duration (36 hours). Regular exercise makes the cellular machinery more efficient, enhancing any benefits gained from fasting or supplements.
7. Sauna/Heat Exposure
Sauna therapy is an exercise mimetic; it mimics the cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal effects of exercise without having to exercise, though they should be complimentary (exercise then sauna). Sauna is beneficial for circulation, lowering blood pressure, and detoxification by helping the body purge harmful chemicals (heavy metals, pollutants, etc.) through sweat. Sauna also activates heat shock proteins, which are intracellular proteins that aid in adaptation and stress.
Frequency: More is better, with a suggested minimum of 3 days a week for most people. Hot tubs are also effective for circulation, as moving blood and lymph is crucial.
8. Cold Exposure/Contrast Therapy
Cold exposure and contrast therapy (alternating hot and cold) are health-promoting because they help move blood and lymph.
Mechanisms: Cold activates brown fat, increasing the density of mitochondria in fat tissue, which influences calorie expenditure and resting metabolic rate. Contrast therapy helps "massage" the lymph and blood by forcing vasodilation and vasoconstriction.
Resilience: While cold exposure is acutely stressful, the body responds by increasing heart rate variability and helping reduce stress. Gender differences in cold tolerance are debated, but listening to one's body and current stress load is key.
9. Simple Lifestyle Fixes
Small lifestyle changes have a disproportionately large impact.
Mouth Taping: Something as simple as mouth taping can improve sleep quality and may help those with sleep apnea.
Alcohol Reduction: Minimizing alcohol consumption is another simple shift that can greatly impact body composition.
10. Strategic Supplementation
Certain supplements can be used to optimize metabolic health:
Berberine: Considered highly effective for influencing blood sugar health, capable of dropping blood sugar in real time. It works similarly to Metformin by affecting the gut, microbia, and hormones like GLP1. It can also aid those struggling to get into ketosis.
Magnesium: Acts as a co-factor for over 300 enzymatic reactions. Recommended forms for health promotion (rather than just laxative effect) include magnesium bisglycinate chelate, malate, threonate, and taurate.
Vitamin D: Highly important for immune health, especially in colder months. Those living in northern latitudes (north of Atlanta, Georgia) should supplement with a minimum of 4,000 IUs up to 6,000 IUs per day, along with Vitamin K2, particularly between October and March.
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