Fastest Way to Shrink Visceral Fat Backed by Science

You can lose lot of weight and still be stuck with belly fat. And that's because abdominal fat isn't just under your skin, it's also visceral fat that's packed around your internal organs. So, it's packed around your stomach and your liver and your pancreas. And this is the fat that drives lot of the chronic conditions that are slowly killing us today. So, visceral fat is what drives diabetes and fatty liver and heart disease and even cancer. But the good news is that while visceral fat is dangerous, it's also the easiest fat to lose once you know how to target it. So, in this video, want to show you the fastest way to specifically target visceral fat and how to burn it off quickly. So, we're going to go over the best foods and drinks to incorporate into your regimen. And then, want to go over the best exercises that will give you the biggest bang for the buck. So, let's start with food because what you eat every day either feeds your visceral fat or it starves it. And one of the most powerful weapons against visceral fat are carotenoid-rich foods. And carotenoids are just natural pigments in plants. They're what give carrots their orange color and that's what makes tomatoes red and that's what gives spinach that dark green color. But it's not just the color, carotenoids are powerful antioxidants. And that's important because so much of what causes visceral fat is energy excess that eventually leads to inflammation and disrupted metabolism. So, carotenoids reduce that stress by neutralizing free radicals or it's these unstable molecules that just damage cells. And by removing free radicals, carotenoids help you stabilize your genes. And specifically, carotenoids can actually help turn on genes that burn more fat. And they actually quiet down genes that tell your body to store fat. And there was an interesting study that was randomized double-blind trial in Japan that looked at whether carotenoid intake affects visceral fat. And what they found was they just 8 weeks of eating carotenoid-rich vegetables reduced visceral fat. Especially the group that was randomized to the high lycopene and low lutein group, which in that study consisted of carrots and shibuki cabbage. But want to emphasize all four groups that ate carotenoid-rich vegetables lowered their visceral fat. So, how do you get these carotenoids from your diet? Well, just target your favorite colorful vegetables. So, things like carrots and sweet potatoes and bell peppers and spinach and squash, you name it. Any colorful vegetable or fruit is likely to be rich in some type of carotenoid and it will help you lose your visceral fat. Now, after carotenoids, another special compound that you need to target is catechins. And these are flavonoid polyphenols, which also act like antioxidants and they reduce inflammation. Now, my favorite way to get catechins is by drinking green tea. And you hear it all the time, green tea burns fat. And it does and it does so because it's rich in catechins. These compounds basically change how your body handles fat and specifically visceral fat. And catechins help with fat regulation in so many different ways. So, first, catechins boost your fat oxidation and energy expenditure. So, they stimulate the nervous system just to burn up more fat and boost your overall metabolism. And on top of that, catechins also inhibit fat processing enzymes like lipase. So, they block fat that we eat from being absorbed in the first place. And the reason green tea is so powerful is green tea also contains caffeine, which can work synergistically with catechins to enhance that fat utilization or fat burning. And there was double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial in Japan that showed that just 12 weeks of drinking catechin-enriched green tea, which was about 600 mg of catechins per day, resulted in significant reduction in visceral fat. Now, just remember, most green teas are high in catechins, but to really maximize the benefit, you want to target green teas that are minimally processed. So, those would be matcha or sencha teas. Now, in the grand scheme of things, anything that leads to an energy deficit or calorie deficit will help you lose weight and it will help you lose visceral fat. But targeting these right foods and drinks will help you get there much faster. And once you've dialed in the right foods, the correct exercise regimen will become that magical multiplier. In fact, the correct type of exercise is big must when it comes to losing visceral fat quickly. And we have studies like this meta-analysis of 117 studies that show that even though both diet and exercise can reduce visceral fat, diet has larger effect on total body weight loss, while exercise tends to have superior effects on reducing visceral fat. And there's an older, but very interesting study that showed just how powerful small dose of exercise can be. So, in this study, just two 45-minute cycling sessions per week at 75% of the VO2 peak for 2 months reduced visceral fat by 48%. So, almost half in just 2 months. And not only that, but this group also improved insulin sensitivity by 41% and lost 18% of subcutaneous fat. And this wasn't strenuous exercise by any means that they had to do twice week. What they did in the study was they measured the intensity as VO2 peak as opposed to VO2 max. So, it's hard to tell exactly what 75% looked like for that average participant, but since the people in the study were likely not professional athletes, assume their VO2 peak was lower than their VO2 max or zone three range or about 70 to 80% of maximum heart rate. So, this exercise would actually put them in the low-moderate intensity. It's that intensity where you can still hold conversation and speak in full sentences, but you just sound little winded. And another interesting trend that we see from the studies is that the total body weight stayed about the same. So, remarkable changes in dropping their visceral fat and improving their insulin sensitivity even though there were no measurable changes on the scale. And this is such an important point that always talk about with my patients. Do not get discouraged if you're doing all the right things when it comes to nutrition and movement and proper exercise, but the weight is just not coming off. More often than not, the scale is pretty poor indicator of your progress because the number on the scale does not necessarily show the changes in your body composition and loss of fat mass. Now, what's the best type of exercise that will help you lose visceral fat and it will help you do it fast? Well, recent systematic review and meta-analysis that looked at 84 randomized controlled trials showed that it's the vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise and high-intensity interval training or HIIT that are the most effective exercise modalities for reducing visceral fat. And resistance training was still beneficial, but just not as effective when looking specifically at the visceral fat reduction. And that's not to say forget about resistance training. In fact, resistance training is must for maintaining your muscle mass and it's important for your overall health and your metabolism. But if you want to lose visceral fat fast, like over the next few months, it's probably better to dial up your cardio. Now, if we're choosing between HIIT and aerobic exercise, there really isn't big difference between the effectiveness. The studies that look at direct comparisons show that both modalities are very similar with no statistically significant difference between the two in adults. Now, if you really want to dig into the data and the literature, there may be small signal that when it comes to HIIT exercises, you may get little bit more effectiveness with running as opposed to cycling. And there are some studies that show that in kids and young adults under the age of 24, HIIT may be more effective than aerobic exercise. But honestly, we're just splitting hairs at this point. At the end of the day, the way see it, it doesn't matter if you do high-intensity interval training or if you do aerobic exercise or whether for cardio you choose to do cycling or running or rowing or dancing, the best exercise is the one you'll actually stick with because consistency beats the perfect plan every time. So, that textbook-perfect HIIT protocol that you just dread and you only do twice month is always going to lose out to that walk that you enjoy and are able to do several times week consistently. And the ideal protocol, at least based on the studies that are available, would probably be an exercise that you can do at least two to three times week for at least 45 minutes each. And whatever you choose, it just has to be at least moderate to vigorous intensity, meaning you're getting your heart rate to about 70 to 80% of your maximum capacity. And if you're not into measuring or tracking your heart rate, good rule of thumb is to do talk test. You know you're doing moderate-intensity activity if you can talk in full sentences, but you sound little out of breath. And you know you're doing vigorous-intensity exercise if you can only speak in few words before pausing and taking breath. And the beautiful thing about exercise is the fact that the effects that you get are dose-dependent, meaning the more you do, the better are the results. There's recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that showed that participants who exercise more or with higher intensity frequently saw proportionally greater reductions in visceral fat. And by contrast, they did not see the dose-dependent response with caloric restriction or dieting, meaning there's limit to how much you can restrict your calories and you really don't see any additional benefit after certain point. So, you do not need to starve yourself to lose belly fat. Quite the opposite, actually. Get enough calories that still keeps you in small calorie deficit, but you can gradually step up your activity and exercise if you want to lose your visceral fat faster. All right, hope this is helpful. Stay healthy and I'll see you in the next one.