What is Visceral Fat?

Can you pinch more than an inch? There is a shred of merit in this saying as what you can pinch actually matters when you’re looking how to lose belly fat. It’s common to see abdominal fat being called various names such as cortisol belly or menopause belly fat, so let’s break it down.

There are different types of body fat in the human body, and when it comes to belly fat there are typically 2 types of fat (1) subcutaneous belly fat, and (2) visceral belly fat. The fat you can pinch is subcutaneous fat and the belly fat you can’t pinch is visceral fat.

You can’t pinch visceral fat because it’s hidden and stored deep inside the belly. It’s wrapped around important internal organs including the liver, pancreas, and intestines.

Unlike the pinchable fat just under your skin, visceral fat isn’t visible and, because we don’t physically see it we don’t always know of the hidden dangers it creates.

Most people have around 90% of body fat that is subcutaneous, the kind of fat that lies in a layer just beneath the skin and feels soft when you poke your belly. The remaining 10% visceral fat.

Visceral Belly Fat v Other Body Fat

To get a better understanding of belly fat and what is visceral fat, let’s compare the different types of women’s body fat.

White fat is the most common type of fat in the body and includes subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and bone marrow fat. It’s made up of droplets of lipids, fatty acids and is the fat that stores extra calories.

Brown fat can be considered more of a good fat as it’s the type of fat that burns calories. It’s found around the chest and neck and involved in maintaining body temperature.

Brown fat cells are full of mitochondria and rich in iron. However, adults have very little brown fat. Babies have the most brown fat at birth and it mostly disappears with age.

Subcutaneous fat: This is the fat just under your skin. Our skin is comprised of several layers and this is the deepest skin layer.  It’s the kind of fat you can pinch on your arms, thighs, or belly.

Subcutaneous fat produces a higher amount of beneficial molecules than visceral fat.

Visceral fat: This fat is stored as belly fat, but located deep inside the abdominal cavity. It surrounds our vital organs and is associated with more serious health problems than other types of fat.

It’s stored in the omentum, which is an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with fat.

Visceral fat produces a higher amount of molecules that can have negative health effects. It makes more of the proteins called cytokines.

They can trigger low-level inflammation, and are a risk factor for heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Visceral belly fat also produces a precursor to a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise.

Intramuscular fat: This fat is found within muscles, and it provides energy during exercise.

Why do Women Need Body Fat

We all need some body fat and physiologically women need more essential body fat than men, this is linked to child bearing.

Fat has the role of being the body’s energy provider and reserve tank.

Studies demonstrate that estrogen reduces a woman’s ability to burn energy after eating with the result of fat being stored around the body.

More than just storing excess calories, body fat has several essential roles in the body. Body fat is needed for:

• Insulating the body and temperature regulation
• Protecting and cushioning vital organs
• Vitamin storage
• Hormone regulation

There are a number of factors that contribute to where women gain fat:

• Genes
• Age
• Hormones
• Whether you’ve had children (women who have given birth often gain more visceral fat than those who haven’t)
• Your weight at birth (smaller babies tend to gain more belly fat later in life)

How Much Visceral Fat is Healthy for Women

On average, as young adults women tend to have less visceral fat than men, however,  that changes with menopause. It’s important for women to maintain a healthy level of visceral fat.

According to health guidelines, women should aim for a visceral fat rating below 12%.

A rating over 12%, between 13-59% is considered high and increases health risk consequences.

So how do you know how much visceral fat you have?

Don’t rely on your weight to tell you because, even if you don’t actually gain weight, your waistline can grow in inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal wall.

Your waist size, however, can offer clues. The NHS suggests that a waist circumference over 80 cm (31.5 inches) may indicate higher levels of visceral fat and potential health risks.

Diagnosing Visceral Fat

As visceral fat is hidden doctors use several methods to diagnose visceral fat levels:

• MRI and CT scans: These are the most accurate diagnostic method (but not always readily accessible).
• Bioelectrical impedance scales: These body fat scales measure body composition, including visceral fat percentage. Bio-impedance scales will typically measure body fat, visceral fat, muscle mass, water, bone density, BMR and can be a really useful way to monitor body fat levels and body composition metrics from home.
• Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR): Comparing your waist size to your hip size gives an estimate of abdominal fat.

How to calculate waist to hip ratio

• Waist circumference: Breathe normally and use a measuring tape around your waist (under clothes). Measure your waist either just above your belly button or at your narrowest point.
• Waist-to-hip ratio: Then measure your hips (the widest part), and divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement.

What Causes Visceral Belly Fat

Understanding what causes visceral fat, is key to knowing how to lose belly fat.

Factors:

• Diet: Consuming too many sugary foods, refined carbs, and unhealthy fats contributes to fat storage.
• Lack of exercise: A sedentary lifestyle leads to weight gain and more visceral fat. Moving more and building muscle mass are key to shaping your body and building metabolism.
• Hormones: Changes in hormones, especially as women age and around menopause can shift both how and where fat is stored. Estrogen in particular plays a key role in determining where fat is stored in a woman’s body.

Women’s body shape can shift post menopause, with pre menopause fat storage moving from the hips and thighs to abdominal belly fat post menopause.

Body shape can change from pear shape to more apple shape with what’s called menopause belly.

• Estrogen: Before menopause, higher estrogen levels encourage fat to be stored in the child-bearing hips and thighs, which poses fewer health risks.
• However, as estrogen levels drop during perimenopause, fat tends to shift to around the abdomen, increasing visceral belly fat.

Research suggests this hormonal shift is a significant factor in why women experience more belly fat as they age.

• Stress and Cortisol: Stress triggers the release of cortisol, a hormone that encourages fat storage, especially belly fat.
• Studies show that people with higher cortisol responses to stress tend to have more abdominal fat.

This is because abdominal visceral fat cells have around 4x more cortisol receptors than subcutaneous fat cells, making this type of belly fat more responsive to stress hormones.

• Sleep deprivation: Poor sleep affects metabolism and hunger hormones, increasing visceral fat.
• Studies have shown that adults who sleep less than 6 hours a night are more likely to have increased waist circumference and higher visceral fat levels.

When you don’t get enough sleep, it disrupts the balance of two key hunger hormones — ghrelin and leptin.

Ghrelin send hunger signals, while leptin signals when you’re full. Sleep deprivation increases ghrelin and decreases leptin, causing you to feel hungrier and less satisfied after eating.

And to make matters worse, poor sleep also raises cortisol levels, and further encourage visceral fat storage.

Genetics: Some women are naturally more prone to storing fat around their belly.

Why is Visceral Belly Fat Dangerous Fat

While some fat is necessary too much visceral fat brings health risks.

Until as recently as the 1990’s body fat was believed to be little more than a storage depot for fat that’s waiting to be used for energy and the main danger of visceral fat was releasing free fatty acids into the bloodstream and liver influencing cholesterol.

However, a science breakthrough found that fat cells — and especially visceral fat cells — are biologically active and they act as an endocrine organ secreting hormones, chemicals and molecules that have far-reaching effects.

Too much of this active fat, visceral fat, can increase the risk of metabolic disorders and several serious health conditions:

• Type 2 diabetes: Visceral fat affects how insulin (your fat storage hormone) works, increasing blood sugar levels.
• Heart disease: Visceral fat releases chemicals that raise blood pressure and cholesterol.
• Stroke: Visceral fat contributes to narrowing blood vessels, increasing stroke risk.
• Cancer: Studies link excess visceral fat to both breast and colon cancer.
• Dementia: Research suggests visceral fat may raise the risk of cognitive decline.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente found that people in their early 40s with the highest levels of abdominal fat, were almost 3x times more likely to develop dementia by their mid-70s-80’s

How Common is Visceral Fat in Women

Women’s obesity levels are rising in the UK and while there is limited data specifically on visceral fat, these broader obesity statistics offer insight:

• Obesity Rates: Approximately 28% of adults in England are classified as obese, with an additional 36% considered overweight. (UK Parliament, House of Commons Library)
• Average Dress Size: A You Gov poll found that the average UK dress size is 16
• Average Waist Size: Women’s average waist size has increased by 7 inches since 1951 – that’s pretty much one inch per decade and food for thought for future decades.
• Gender Differences: Between 2011 and 2019, obesity prevalence among women ranged from 24% to 30%, while 57% to 62% were either overweight or obese. (NHS Digital)

How to Lose Belly Fat (and prevent visceral fat)

There is good news. Visceral fat is more readily metabolized into fatty acids, and therefore responds more efficiently to diet and exercise (than subcutaneous fat on the hips and thighs). Here are some approaches on how to lose belly fat :

Tips How to Lose Belly Fat:

• Move More. Exercise can help reduce waist size. So even when the number on the scales doesn’t move to say you’ve lost weight, you can lose visceral belly fat and gain all important muscle mass (metabolic boost)
• Studies have shown that you can lose visceral belly fat and/or prevent gaining visceral belly fat with both aerobic movement (brisk walking) and with resistance/strength training. Note that spot exercises, that target one area such as sit-ups, can tighten your abdominal muscles but they won’t help you lose visceral fat. Focus on compound moves like squats that use multiple muscle groups.
• Eat a Balanced Calorie Controlled Diet. Focus on filling foods protein and fibre based at every meal. Avoid simple sugars like fructose-sweetened foods and beverages which seem to encourage belly fat.
• Smokers Beware. The more you smoke, the more likely you are to store fat in your abdomen.
• Get Balanced Sleep. Not too little – A 5 year study found that adults under 40 who got five hours or less sleep a night accumulated significantly more visceral fat. And not too much — younger adults who slept more than eight hours also gained visceral fat. (Note, this correlation wasn’t found in those over 40)
• Green Tea Supplements: Some of the best supplements to lose menopause belly fat include Green Tea Extract. This extract has been studied extensively in relation to its weight loss properties and has been shown to support metabolism and fat oxidation.
• A 2022 study looking at post menopause overweight and obese women found that 60 days of green tea supplementation may cause positive effects on body composition. Body composition was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and found that the women supplementing with green tea had a statistically significant decrease in visceral fat and fat mass.
• Supplement Recommendation: You’ll find Green Tea as a key ingredient in Pretty Pea Meno Weight capsules.
• Finally Forget Instant Fat Loss Fixes. Forget how to lose belly fat in a week. Cosmetic fat removal procedures such as liposuction don’t reach visceral fat inside the abdominal wall.

You can find Green Tea Extract in Pretty Pea Meno Weight