Visceral fat is actually easier to lose than
You can get rid of visceral fat by exercising and eating healthy. It might take a couple of months, but visceral fat is generally easier to lose than than the fat right under your skin. That's because your body breaks it down faster.
Regular exercise is especially effective in reducing visceral fat and preventing it from coming back. Even though you cannot change your genetics, hormones or your age, you can reduce your risk of disease by: being physically active for at least 30 minutes most days. eating a healthy diet.
In fact, the belly is the hardest place for many people to lose weight. If you're struggling to reduce belly fat, you may be wondering why. There's no simple answer because there are several reasons why this type of fat is so hard to lose.
Skinny fat, Alexander says, can happen if you eat a particularly poor diet or in people who are not typically active. Visceral fat likes inactivity. In one study, thin people who watched their diets but didn't exercise were more likely to have too much visceral fat. The key is to be active, at any size.
Keep moving. Exercise can help reduce your waist circumference. Even if you don't lose weight, you lose visceral belly fat and gain muscle mass. Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days, such as brisk walking or bicycling at a casual pace.
What are the symptoms of visceral fat? A growing belly is the most obvious sign of visceral fat, but that can indicate subcutaneous fat as well. Some studies show if you have a potbelly — or are more “apple-shaped” than “pear-shaped” — you may have more visceral fat.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
Exercise seems to work off belly fat in particular because it reduces circulating levels of insulin —which would otherwise signal the body to hang on to fat—and causes the liver to use up fatty acids, especially those nearby visceral fat deposits, he says.
Treatment options for stomach overhang include lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, as well as surgical options, such as tummy tuck surgery (abdominoplasty). It's important to note that tummy tuck surgery can only remove excess skin and fat, it does not address weight loss or muscle weakness.
Equally unfortunate is the fact that cortisol belly doesn't have a specific appearance, despite what countless infographics on the internet will tell you. Cortisol belly simply looks like abdominal fat, and there is no way to identify it by appearance.
Different fat pads start shrinking at different ages. The fat under our eyes starts to decrease the earliest, beginning in our twenties, and is followed in our thirties by the beginning of the loss of fat in the temples and parts of the cheeks. The superficial fat tends to persist unless there's major weight loss.
The pounds you shed are essentially the byproducts of that process. They are excreted in the form of water—when you sweat and pee—and carbon dioxide, when you exhale. In fact, the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat.
You Feel Like You're Looking Worse
The idea is that just before a significant weight loss occurs, you actually look a little pudgy and soft. Why? Because you've started to break down your fat cells and now they're filling up with water. Soon, these cells will flush themselves out and shrink.
Other foods to avoid include products high in refined sugars “like soda, candy, cookies, cakes and ice cream,” she says. “These food items are all high in simple carbohydrates, which tend to store fat around the abdominal area.”
The Science of Fat Loss
Think of it like a balloon losing air—it deflates, but doesn't disappear immediately. Over time, your body adjusts, but the jiggly feeling can be a temporary step along the way.
You can't reduce fat from specific parts of your body by exercising that body part; our bodies simply don't work that way. With sit-ups or other abdominal exercises, you're toning the abdominal muscles but not burning intra-abdominal fat.
The result is often a large apron of extra skin that hangs from your stomach. Unfortunately, no amount of dieting or exercising will correct this problem. It's simply a manifestation of the fact that the skin has been stretched too far for too long, and surgically removing it is the only option.
Aerobic exercise includes any activity that raises your heart rate such as walking, dancing, running or swimming. This can also include doing housework, gardening and playing with your children. Other types of exercise such as strength training, Pilates and yoga can also help you lose belly fat.