What should visceral fat be

Where fat ends up is influenced by several factors, including heredity and hormones. As the evidence against abdominal fat mounts, researchers and clinicians are trying to measure it, correlate it with health risks, and monitor changes that occur with age and overall weight gain or loss.

The fat you can pinch is subcutaneous fat. The fat inside your belly the visceral fat can be seen and measured, but not pinched. How do you lose belly fat? No surprise: exercise and diet. Staying physically active throughout the day as well as scheduling time for structured exercise may be even more important than diet.

Research suggests that fat cells — particularly abdominal fat cells — are biologically active. It's appropriate to think of fat as an endocrine organ or gland, producing hormones and other substances that can profoundly affect our health. Although scientists are still deciphering the roles of individual hormones, it's becoming clear that excess body fat, especially abdominal fat, disrupts the normal balance and functioning of these hormones.

Scientists are also learning that visceral fat pumps out immune system chemicals called cytokines — for example, tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-6 — that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

These and other biochemicals are thought to have deleterious effects on cells' sensitivity to insulin, blood pressure, and blood clotting. One reason excess visceral fat is so harmful could be its location near the portal vein, which carries blood from the intestinal area to the liver.

Substances released by visceral fat, including free fatty acids, enter the portal vein and travel to the liver, where they can influence the production of blood lipids.

Visceral fat is directly linked with higher total cholesterol and LDL bad cholesterol, lower HDL good cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means that your body's muscle and liver cells don't respond adequately to normal levels of insulin, the pancreatic hormone that carries glucose into the body's cells.

Glucose levels in the blood rise, heightening the risk for diabetes. Now for the good news. So what can we do about tubby tummies? A lot, it turns out. The starting point for bringing weight under control, in general, and combating abdominal fat, in particular, is regular moderate-intensity physical activity — at least 30 minutes per day and perhaps up to 60 minutes per day to control weight and lose belly fat.

Strength training exercising with weights may also help fight abdominal fat. Advanced Search. My Cart. Visceral Fat Fat you actually need..? A lean belly leads to a healthier life. When measuring your body fat surrounding the waist, you are actually measuring visceral fat.

This is the fat that surrounds your abdominal organs. It is normal to have some visceral fat; however, a high level of visceral fat can lead to serious health issues. What is visceral fat? Visceral fat is wrapped around major organs like the liver, pancreas and your kidney. Visceral fat ensures that there is some distance between each organ. Too much visceral fat creates can lead to inflammation and high blood pressure, which increases the risk of serious health problems.

This is also know as central obesity. Visceral fat inhibits adiponectin. As a result your body produces more fat than you actually need. A high level of visceral fat also influences your insulin sensitivity. Which means that it can lead to type 2 diabetes later in life. How to measure visceral fat? There are many different ways to measure visceral fat, these include options you could do at home, but you could also go to your doctor.

An easy method you could do right now is to take a measurement of the largest parts around your waist and hip. However, this option is not entirely accurate. Once you have measured both your waists and hip, divide the waist by the hip measurement. Low carb diets , such as the keto diet , may also help you lose visceral fat. Discover other ways to reduce visceral fat. The stress hormone cortisol can actually increase how much visceral fat your body stores, so reducing the stress in your life will help make it easier to lose the fat.

Practice meditation , deep breathing , and other stress management tactics. Your doctor can use tests such as blood tests or an electrocardiogram ECG or EKG to check for health risks associated with high incidence of visceral fat.

They may also refer you to a nutritionist. That makes it that much more dangerous. Maintaining a healthy, active, low-stress lifestyle can help prevent visceral fat from building up in excess in the abdominal cavity. Visceral fat, or belly fat, is extremely bad for your health and linked to chronic disease. Here are strategies to lose visceral fat and improve your…. Excess belly fat is very unhealthy.

It can drive diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Here are 11 things that can make you gain belly fat. Focusing on body fat percentage instead of weight is much more useful to track fat loss progress. Here are the 10 best ways to measure your body fat…. There are several different types of fat in our bodies.

The main types of fat cells are white, brown, and beige cells, and they all play different…. There are many natural weight loss methods that science has shown to be effective. Here are 29 easy ways to lose weight naturally. Getting good quality sleep is an important part of weight loss.