What is visceral belly fat, and how do you lose it?
It’s the deep fat around your organs. You can’t see it, and people at a healthy weight can carry it. Exercise can shrink it even when the scales don’t move.
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What is visceral belly fat?
It’s fat deep inside your tummy. It sits around organs such as your stomach, intestines and liver.
You can’t see it from the outside. And Imperial College London researchers say some people carry large amounts of it despite being a healthy weight.
| Question | What the evidence says |
|---|---|
| Where is it? | Deep inside your tummy, around your stomach, intestines and liver. |
| Can I see it? | No. It can’t be seen from the outside. |
| Can slim people have it? | Yes. Some people at a healthy weight carry large amounts. |
| What is it linked to? | Higher blood sugar, heart disease and some cancers. |
| Can I lose it? | Yes. Eating less and exercising both cut it, across 117 studies. |
Sources: Imperial College London; Diabetes UK; Shuster 2012; Verheggen 2016
So your weight alone can’t tell you how much you carry. Your first check is a tape measure.
Do I have too much visceral fat?
Your waist is the best clue you have at home. Carrying extra weight around your middle means fat can build up around organs, like your liver and pancreas.
| Who | Healthy waist |
|---|---|
| All women | Less than 80 cm (31.5 in) |
| Most men | Less than 94 cm (37 in) |
| South Asian men | Less than 90 cm (35 in) |
| Adults with a BMI (weight-for-height number) under 35 | Also less than half your height |
Sources: Diabetes UK; NHS
Find the top of your hip bone and the bottom of your ribs. Measure halfway between them. For many people the belly button is a good guide, but it might not be the right spot for you.
Some smart scales show a visceral fat number. The NHS and Diabetes UK use a tape measure around your waist. See body fat scales vs DEXA for how far scales can be trusted.
Write your number down. To check it against your height, use waist-to-height ratio vs BMI.
Why does visceral fat matter?
One clear link is blood sugar. Diabetes UK explains how fat around your organs can push it up.
How fat around your organs can raise blood sugar
- 1
Fat builds up
Extra weight around your middle lets fat build up around your liver and pancreas.
- 2
Insulin gets blocked
Insulin can’t get through the fat. Doctors call this insulin resistance.
- 3
Insulin works less well
The insulin your body makes doesn’t work properly.
- 4
Blood sugar can rise
Your chance of high blood glucose (sugar) goes up.
Source: Diabetes UK
Visceral fat is also linked to heart disease and some cancers, including prostate, breast and bowel cancer.
In a study of 21,241 UK adults, more visceral fat was linked to faster heart ageing. The researchers said BMI wasn’t a good way of predicting heart age. The study shows a link, not that the fat causes it.
Want to know which blood results tend to go with it? See visceral fat blood test.
What’s the best way to lose visceral fat?
Eat a little less and move more. Across 117 studies of 4,815 people, both diet and exercise cut visceral fat.
| What people did | Weight | Visceral fat |
|---|---|---|
| Ate fewer calories | Bigger loss than exercise | Went down |
| Exercised | Smaller loss | Went down, and tended to fall more than with diet |
| Exercised, weight stayed the same | No loss | Went down by 6.1% |
| Dieted, weight stayed the same | No loss | Almost no change (1.1%) |
Source: Verheggen 2016
That 6.1% line is the twist. Exercise was linked to less visceral fat even when the scales didn’t move.
So judge your progress by your waist, not just your weight. Experts agree waist size can drop with or without weight loss.
Across 61 studies, modest weight loss took off a bigger share of visceral fat than of fat under the skin. That edge faded with bigger losses.
If you’re carrying extra weight, the NHS says to aim to lose 0.5 to 1 kg a week. Losing just 5 to 10% of your body weight can improve your health. For the food side, see the best way to lose belly fat.
Which exercise reduces visceral fat?
Cardio. In 35 trials of adults carrying extra weight, cardio cut visceral fat on scans. Strength training alone had no clear effect.
Mixing cardio and strength also had no clear effect compared with no exercise, but only 7 trials tested it. The authors think even less cardio than weight-loss guidelines advise may be enough to help.
For cardio, the NHS advises moderate activity. It makes you breathe faster and feel warmer, and you can still talk, but not sing.
Your visceral fat plan for this week
- Measure your waist halfway between your hip bone and your ribs, and write it down.
- Walk briskly, ride a bike or dance at a pace where you can talk, but not sing.
- Build up to 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, spread over 4 to 5 days or every day.
- Do strength moves for legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms on at least 2 days a week.
- If you’re carrying extra weight, eat a little less than your body uses, aiming to lose 0.5 to 1 kg a week.
- Cut down on alcohol, because it’s high in calories.
Sources: NHS activity; NHS obesity; Diabetes UK
Keep the strength days. They had no clear effect on visceral fat alone, but the NHS advises them for all adults. For a step-by-step start, see walking to lose weight.
When to speak to a GP
See a GP if your BMI is in the overweight or obese range and:
- you want help to lose weight
- your waist is more than half your height
- you have pre-diabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, high cholesterol, sleep apnoea (breathing that stops and starts in your sleep) or heart and circulation disease
- obesity runs in your family
- you have, or think you may have, an eating disorder, such as binge eating
Some conditions, like an underactive thyroid or Cushing’s syndrome (when your body makes too much of the stress hormone cortisol), can cause weight gain. Some steroids, antidepressants and beta blockers (heart and blood pressure medicines) can make weight harder to manage.
Never stop or change a prescribed medicine without your prescriber. To see how stress hormones fit in, read does cortisol cause belly fat.