Body Fat and Health Part 2

In Part 1, I discussed the fact that general body fat percentage has a relatively minor impact on one’s health as compared to where the majority of an individual’s fat is stored: visceral fat (around your organs), abdominal subcutaneous fat (“belly fat” around your midsection just below the skin), and gluteofemoral fat (around your hips, buttocks, and thighs).

Visceral fat is by far the biggest problem and a predominance of fat in this area presents the biggest increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So, let’s discuss ways to reduce visceral fat.

First, there’s dietary factors. Of course, any diet that puts one in a caloric deficit (taking in fewer calories than your body uses for fuel) will reduce fat deposits in general and will reduce visceral fat, but there are some things that will accentuate the reduction of visceral fat.

In terms of overall diet, it appears that reducing one’s intake of simple carbohydrates, particularly sugars, is one of the most basic ways to decrease visceral fat. This is not necessarily a “low carb” diet, but a diet low in refined/processed carbohydrates that cause rapid spikes in blood sugar when consumed. The Mediterranean Diet is a good example of a diet that helps reduce visceral fat.

One study found that the effects on visceral fat from the Mediterranean Diet could be significantly enhanced by supplementing with green tea and duckweed (although since both were used together, it’s unclear whether one or the other or the combination was most effective).

Green tea has shown benefits in general fat loss and is probably more palatable for most people, as it comes in pill as well as tea form.

Duckweed is growing in popularity, but is often sold as a high protein powder to be mixed with liquid to make a “shake” that, while mild in flavor, tends to not look very appetizing.

There are other foods / nutrients that appear to reduce visceral fat deposits as well.

First on the list is garlic, specifically the compound allicin in garlic. Simply eating garlic on a regular basis will do the trick, but if you aren’t eating garlic in food consistently, there are garlic extract / allicin supplements that can be used instead of, or in addition to what you might consume in food. While it doesn’t work for everyone, one recent study found that supplementing with 800 mg per day produced significant reductions in visceral fat in over half the test subjects within 15 weeks.

Next up is coffee. Again, it doesn’t work in every case, but the combination of antioxidants and caffeine in coffee help the liver burn fat deposited within it. It is thought that visceral fat usually starts as deposits in the liver, so reducing those deposits help head off further visceral fat deposition, as well as help the liver to function more efficiently. Now, too much caffeine creates problems of its own, so sticking to one or two cups of coffee per day is suggested.

Another specific food that appears to reduce visceral fat is cranberries – but in their unsweetened form. Many cranberry juices and prepared cranberry products are loaded with sugar to make them palatable, and it’s best to avoid refined sugar, as discussed earlier. Probably the easiest way to use cranberry is through supplements. Supplementing with 100 to 150 mg of cranberry extract per day was found to reduce insulin resistance and is thought to improve overall fat metabolism.

Although human studies are currently lacking, findings from rodent studies indicate that whey protein may also reduce visceral fat deposition, so it may be worth a try as well.

In addition to diet, exercise also has an impact on visceral fat. Almost any exercise has benefits, but when it comes specifically to reducing visceral fat, aerobic types of exercise are far more effective than resistance training / muscle building exercises.

Almost any kind of aerobic exercise, including plain old walking, will help reduce visceral fat deposits, but there is a particular type of aerobic exercise that is especially effective. This type is called HIIT – or High Intensity Interval Training.

The basic idea of HIIT is that you do brief bouts of exercise at an intensity that gets you to nearly your maximum heart rate and then rest (or greatly reduce the intensity of your activity) for a period before once again going up to the high intensity state again. There’s more than one protocol for doing HIIT, and a full discussion is beyond the intended scope of this article.

Before going further, because of the intensity of HIIT, it is strongly recommended that you NOT go straight into it if you have never exercised before, and it’s also a good idea to get a medical check-up and a clean bill of health from your doctor before starting. If you’re new to exercise in general and/or are pretty out of shape, I recommend starting with a low to moderate intensity activity like walking or swimming and transition to include some HIIT as your fitness improves.

And if you find a routine that you like with more moderate intensity and don’t want to try to increase, that’s fine too – moderate aerobic activity reduces visceral fat too, just not as efficiently as HIIT.

One basic approach to doing HIIT is to run, cycle, swim, etc. for about 30 seconds as hard/fast as you can go, then reduce intensity to an easy, comfortable pace for about a minute (perhaps longer if you’re just starting with this type of exercise), until your heart rate and breathing return to normal. Then repeat the process until you’ve done a total of 15 to 20 minutes of activity. Two to three days per week is a good frequency for this type of exercise.

Although some individuals swear by their favored HIIT protocol, there’s not a huge difference in the effects of the different ones, so if you have an interest in it, maybe check out a few online and see what works for you. Also, a lot of HIIT protocols reference running, but if that’s not a comfortable exercise for you, cycling, swimming, aerobics, kickboxing, and any other activity that can get your heart rate up and get you breathing hard are all viable alternatives that can be done instead of running.

Using a combination of diet, supplementation, and exercise, visceral fat can be reduced and its harmful health effects can be eliminated.

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.