Visceral Fat: How much is too much?

Your body is made up of muscle, bone, and fat. For now, let us focus on the fat.

There’s fat you can pinch and fat you cannot. The fat you can pinch may be found on your arms or face. The second kind is far more dangerous.

It’s called visceral fat.

This fat wraps itself around your organs. Your liver, pancreas, and intestines. You can’t see it. You may not even feel it. But it quietly changes the chemistry of your body every single day.

How much is too much?

If your waist is more than 90 cm for men or 80 cm for women, chances are you’re carrying too much visceral fat.

If you really wanted to understand how much you had, you would need a DEXA scan or MRI. Still, a bulging belly, especially one that feels firm and deep, is often a strong clue.

So what does it do?

Visceral fat is made up of living cells. These cells releases inflammatory signals, hormones, and fatty acids directly into the liver.

This disrupts insulin sensitivity, increases blood sugar, raises triglycerides, and thickens your arteries.

It doesn’t just sit there. It fuels diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and speeds up aging.

And here’s the twist. You can be thin and still have high visceral fat. This is why some people with normal BMI suffer from lifestyle diseases. It is called skinny fat.

How can you reduce it?

Not by starving yourself. And certainly not by doing crunches.

The key is to improve metabolic flexibility. Your ability to switch between burning carbs and fat.

Long walks, swimming or cycling help. Fasting, for over sixteen hours a day, helps. Eating low-glycemic, whole foods. Sleeping well.

Of course, breathing slowly, which restores the sense of calm, which in turn regulates energy.

Visceral fat is not the problem. It is just a signal that your body is out of balance.

Return to balance, and the fat disappears. Quietly. Just like it came.

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