This post is a 2 minute read
Visceral fat, otherwise known as belly fat, is stored deep within your abdomen and surrounding organs such as the intestines, liver, and pancreas. You might have heard of it before from fat loss gurus like Michael Mosley, and other wellness experts like Peter Attia. So, what’s all the fuss, why is it a ticking time bomb?? Well simply, if we have excess it can kill!
Visceral fat is dangerous to our health! Excess around your organs leads to:
- Heart disease and lipid imbalance
- Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver
- Systematic inflammation
- Decreased fat-burning hormone (Adiponectin)
These are severe conditions that shorten your health span! (1)
What’s the solution, and can you measure it?
You can measure Visceral fat with DEXA! With a whole-body DEXA scan, you can measure it to the gram. At Body Measure we:
- Measure your visceral fat,
- Provide you with a healthy normal range.
- Work out your ideal weight with healthy visceral fat levels and
- Time frame to get to your ideal weight.
You can book your DEXA here.
The hidden fat
Visceral fat is not as obvious as you think, it can be high in the most unsuspecting individuals.
Check out these two images, both with the same total fat mass but the one on the left has excess visceral fat and the one on the right is in the healthy norm.
What can you do to reduce your visceral fat levels?
Fat loss, not weight loss will reduce your visceral fat!
In our clinic, we have noticed that people who make diet and lifestyle the priority they reduce visceral fat, some examples are:
- Increasing their zone 2 activity or daily steps,
- Replace takeaway meals and ultra-processed foods with meal-prep whole foods and lean protein meals.
- Abstaining from alcohol can be the biggest impact!
If you want to measure your visceral fat, you can book a DEXA scan at our St Leonards clinic. The 5 min scan will give you visceral fat and total muscle, body fat %, and an accurate baseline of your body composition. Why not challenge yourself and participate in Dry July!? It starts in a month! Or maybe you can try a combination of any of the methods above.
Regards
The team at BodyMeasure St Leonards
