Tag Archive for: visceral fat

HIIT: Specific Fat Loss

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What were the results of HIIT training? The researchers found that there were reductions in overall weight as well as subcutaneous and visceral fat. What’s the difference? The fat just under the skin is subcutaneous fat; visceral fat is behind the abdominal muscles and around the internal organs and is more related to the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. There were no differences in the outcome variables with two exceptions:

  • Those who were in the running group lost a greater percentage of subcutaneous fat than the cycling group at 16.1% vs. 8.3%. The other difference was that positive changes in the microbiome were correlated with the loss of subcutaneous fat. Before you get too excited, the actual loss of subcutaneous fat was close to two pounds in the running group and about one pound in the cycling group. Still, ask your butcher for one pound of fat and see what it looks like. It’s a lot and probably worth the effort doing the HIIT program.
  • The other benefit was an improvement in some positive bacteria in the microbiome. It wasn’t associated with running or cycling; it was correlated with the loss of subcutaneous fat. It seems that visceral fat would show more benefit, but that wasn’t the case. Maybe someday we’ll find out why.

The obvious problem with doing a running HIIT program is that you have to be able to run—at least for 45 seconds. While my running is progressing slowly, I do intervals only while walking or riding the exercise bike. But running for 45 seconds? I can handle that.

Finally, while I was puzzled about the microbiome benefits, I also questioned why there was a difference between cycling and running when it came to the loss of subcutaneous fat. The researchers didn’t have a reason to explain it. I’ll give you my informed opinion: running integrates more of the core during the actual interval than cycling does. My hunch could be tested with sensors that detect the electrical activity of muscles, but that’s fine tuning that might not be necessary. As a scientist, I always want to know why, but that’s not important; it’s just important that it is.

We’ve seen that 30 minutes of moderate walking can prevent the loss of muscle and a HIIT running program can help lose subcutaneous fat in those who are overweight. How about getting fitter faster? Is that possible? Find out next week when we look at SIT training—and sitting does have something to do with it!

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Med Sci Sports Exerc 2024 May 1;56(5):839-850.



The Bottom Line on Belly Fat

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Our pretend daughter Jamie slow-cooked a roast for Memorial Day, and it was delicious, the best she’s ever done. She does them very well to begin with, so what made this one so good? Fat. It was a chuck roast. What made it so good was not the fat that you could see, it was the intramuscular fat you really can’t see when it’s cooked. The marbling you see before cooking? That’s more like what I mean, but some fat is so woven into the muscle you can’t see it even then. Why on earth am I talking about chuck roast? It’s because we humans are well marbled as we age, but in our case, it’s not a good thing.

I’ve told you about subcutaneous and visceral fat, but there’s one more type: intramuscular fat. Because we are so sedentary, we have plenty of it, and the more sedentary we are, the more intramuscular fat we have. While it could be a readily available supply of fuel, it’s a sign of muscle loss and sedentary living.

How can we tell whether our fat is located under our skin or around our organs? The only definitive way is with a CAT or PET scan. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) can be used to determine body fat, but it’s not as precise on the location.

Let’s make it simple. Stand up. Contract your abdominal muscles as tight as you can. Now grab your belly fat, opening your hand as far as you have to get a good hold. If you seem to have more fat in your hands but there doesn’t seem to be much under the muscle, you most likely have more under the skin than under the muscle. If you can’t grab much fat in your hands but you still have a large waist, it’s mostly visceral fat.

While not exactly a scientific method, it can give you an idea of where you stand. And this doesn’t count the marbling effect. For me, it’s almost all subcutaneous fat I can grab.


The Bottom Line

How do you get rid of belly fat? Eat less. Eat better. Move more.

Yes, you’ve heard that before, but here’s why it’s the solution to this problem:

  • Eating less will help you lose fat from under the skin and under the muscle.
  • Eating better means you will be eating fewer refined carbohydrates, and that can benefit your visceral fat.
  • Exercise will help the intramuscular fat because you’ll use it as fuel. It will help the subcutaneous fat because you’ll be burning calories—and yes, do your crunches and leg lifts to strengthen your core. But the visceral fat will benefit the most from exercise because exercise can help use the hormones it produces and move your metabolic function more toward normal.

Find a way to eat less, eat better, and move more that suits your lifestyle. It may be completely different from what works for your best friend or your Aunt Mary, but it will work for you. For many people, my Optimal Performance Program is helping them achieve results they haven’t gotten any other way. But whatever approach you use, you must do something; when I say the guy in the photo has a killer belly, I mean it literally. The answer isn’t a pill or a special food; it’s the effort you put into it.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

The Dangers of Undercover Fat

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What’s lurking under your abdominal muscles, in and around your liver and other internal organs? Undercover fat, actually called intra-abdominal or visceral fat. It’s dangerous because visceral fat is more metabolically active and increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes among other diseases.

What does “metabolically active” mean? Primarily, this fat makes more chemicals that can impact other organs in a negative way: protein, fat, and cholesterol-based hormones such as cortisol, insulin, and estrogen. These chemicals are critical to our health but in excess amounts can result in insulin resistance, fatty liver, and excess estrogen in women and men.

How do you know what type of fat predominates in your body? Better yet, is there anything you can do about it? We’ll finish this up on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Diet Soda and Your Waistline

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We’re continuing our look at the role that diet soda may be playing in increasing your waistline especially over 65. While the study made for sensational headlines, was the attention deserved? In my opinion, no.

The premise of the paper is that as waist circumference increases, so does the risk of cardiometabolic disease: diseases associated with visceral fat (1). That would include heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and others. Visceral fat seems to be more metabolically active (or in simpler terms, the fat under the muscle and around the organs seems to be hungrier) and thus contributes . . .

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