By Not all fat on our bodies are created equal, and we do need a certain amount of body fat in order for our organs to function properly and effectively (as well as keep us alive).
Subcutaneous fat is the fat that you can’t miss, as it looks jelly under the skin. It’s the stiff that you can pinch relatively easy. This fat is somewhat harmless, and does protect us from some disease & keeps our body temperatures regulated (even though we may not like the way it looks on our bodies!) When losing this kind of fat, you will look a lot leaner around your body (mainly legs and arms).
Visceral fat can be referred to an active fat, because it releases harmful chemicals to our major organs (this chemical actually breaks down muscle and creates even fat stores on your body). This fat is usually around our liver, intestines and stomach.
Visceral fat is really toxic because it can cause many health problems which includes; Insulin resistance, diabetes and can raise blood pressure levels. This doesn’t even go into depth regarding the other various risks of cancer and degenerative brain disease.
Losing this fat is key to increasing your lifespan, and bringing you back to health. Where there is a will, there is a way.
4 ways to decrease your visceral fat stores.
- Change your diet immediately.
Your diet should change from processed. refined carb and sugar type foods, towards whole foods that contain fibre, protein and good fats. This is what you should be eating all the time, in order to slowly decrease your fat stores, and bring your fat burning hormones back into balance. This means your insuline levels will lower, your blood pressure will normalise, and that visceral fat will decrease immensely. In due time, and with this overhall in your lifestyle, you will experience good health again, and be more inclined to include activities – such as exercise – to help you lose even more visceral fat stores. - Reduce your carb intake.
Low carb is a great way to accelerate your fat burning potential. Going low carb moderates your blood sugar levels, and overtime, balancing your insulin levels overtime, which will increase your fat burning potential.
Low carb eating also reduces your hunger, that naturally helps you to eat less over time. The less time you spend on controlling will power to eat, the better chance you will have at sticking to your diet and fitness regime. - Build your muscle mass.
The more muscle mass you build, the more elevated your metabolism will become to support a much better hormonal and biochemical environment by lowering that chemical released by visceral fat. Get in the gym and lift some weights to re-shape your body, and build that muscle mass needed to change your life. - Sprint intervals or HIIT.
Use HIIT with strength training, and you will get some amazing results. This is the most effective for reduction in subcutaneous and visceral fat together, than any other exercise. This is why we always use sprint intervals as our cardio exercise, that should only be performed 2–3 times per week, for about 20–25 minutes maximum. In order to get the most out of this, you must sprint at a higher than normal intensity, and the intensity should have you struggling to catch your breath! That’s why they are short, intense and vigorous bursts of activity, followed by active recover, performed over and over again for 25 minutes.
I hope this has explained the 2 different kinds of fat we can have on our bodies. Please do try it and see what it can do for you as well. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you need further assistance. I have plenty of other blog posts on my wesbsite or join me on fb and insta social standpoints. Please feel free to upvote this answer if it has been useful in some way to you.
