Fat that accumulates in your midsection and beneath your belly is called visceral fat. This type of fat wraps itself around your organs and causes inflammation, raising the risk of heart attacks, diabetes, poor circulation and many other problems.
Unlike subcutaneous fat which sits just underneath your skin, visceral fat is much harder to burn as energy when you're dieting or exercising, because it's tied to hormonal imbalances like insulin resistance or high cortisol.
In this blog post I'll be talking about 6 things that are blocking you from burning your visceral belly fat, and how to avoid and overcome them, so that you may lose belly fat quickly.
1. High Carbohydrates Diet
Firstly, a high carb diet is the main thing blocking you from burning off that fat, and this is when you're eating too many foods that contain sugar, starch or fructose, including processed carbs like breads, pasta, biscuits, fruit juices and sugary snacks.
Processed carbohydrates are higher in calories and energy, which has to be burnt off by your mitochondria. However if you don't burn off the carbs that you're eating, they get stored as fat automatically.
Over time, overeating carbohydrates causes inflammation and fat to build up inside the liver, which spreads and wraps itself around your organs as visceral fat. Visceral belly fat raises insulin resistance, which makes it harder for your body to burn fat as energy, so the more damage you do, the harder it gets. To fix this problem, replace the processed carbs that you're eating with non-starchy vegetables, healthy proteins and natural fats.
Visceral fat is also highly associated with drinking alcohol or fructose sweetened drinks. Alcohol acts as a fuel that has to be burnt off by your liver before you can burn fat. Alcohol also breaks down into a toxic inflammatory chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages your liver cells and causes fat to build up inside.
Flavoured soda drinks are also loaded with processed fructose. Unlike sucrose, which is found in table sugar, fructose can only be processed by the liver, so it's more likely to cause visceral fat in your abdomen. Cutting these drinks from your diet may be the key to burning off that stubborn belly fat.
Did you know that you actually burn the most amount of fat whilst you're asleep? When you're sleeping, human growth hormone is released, which helps break down fat for energy. Human growth hormone is especially important for reducing visceral fat, as it helps to target that fat that's deep inside your belly.
Without enough sleep however, cortisol levels remain high, and this blocks human growth hormone and forces your body to store more fat around your organs.
Studies show that getting at least 7-9 hours of sleep each night, can significantly lower visceral fat. So to improve your sleep, try going to bed earlier, sleeping in a darkened, cool room and avoiding screens before bed. For more tips on good sleep hygiene read my post on "Sleep Hygiene: Importance and How to Practice Good Sleep Hygiene".
2. Too Much Vegetable Oils
Now another substance that can completely block you from losing belly fat, is vegetable oils such as soybean, cottonseed, corn, canola, peanut, sunflower or margarine for example.
These are found in over 80% of packaged foods found in supermarkets, and they're used to cook fast foods, take out meals and baked goods because they're cheap. Despite being called vegetable oils however, they are actually made from highly processed grains, which uses toxic solvents and chemicals that can damage your liver cells. High in omega 6 fatty acids, these seed oils also raise inflammation, causing fat to accumulate in your liver and between the organs as visceral fat.
The solution is to simply start cooking more of your own healthy meals at home using natural healthy oils, like extra virgin olive oil, beef tallow, clarified butter which is ghee, and organic coconut oil. These fats reduce insulin resistance, which is the key driver to lose belly fat quickly.
Did you also know that being stressed out and emotional can also stop you from losing belly fat? You see when you're anxious, stressed or fearful, your adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol quickly turns proteins in your body into sugar, so that you can have a burst of energy to run away or fight in an emergency situation. However, the body isn't designed to experience long term mental stress that we make for ourselves, from relationships, life situations and financial worries.
Over time if you stay stressed and you keep releasing too much cortisol, your body will continue to raise the sugar in your blood, and this triggers insulin, the fat storage hormone that turns that extra sugar into visceral and subcutaneous fat around your belly.
So if you are eating very healthily, but you're still not losing weight, you'll probably need to find ways to turn off this stress response, to lower your cortisol. For example, drinking just 1 cup of lemon balm tea each day has been shown to lower cortisol, promote relaxation.
Studies also show that listening to slow and calm music that has around 60 beats per minute has a relaxing effect on the body, helping to ease stress and lower cortisol. You may also use Qur'an recitation or guided meditations which are freely available online to help trigger relaxation. But the absolute best thing you can do is to go for long walks every day with lots of fresh air and sunshine.
This will help to calm down your nervous system, and turn off the fight or flight response that may be blocking you from burning belly fat, and also inflammation in your intestines and gut can block weight loss as well. When your gut is inflamed it triggers the release of inflammatory chemicals which can disrupt your metabolism.
This inflammation causes insulin resistance, forcing your body to store fat deep inside your belly as visceral fat. This is very common in people who experience severe bloating, IBS, IBD, chronic constipation or SIBO. So if any of these are your problem and you're trying to lose belly fat, you'll need to start healing your gut for best results.
Start cutting out processed foods, artificial sweeteners and refined sugars that feed bad bacteria. Instead add probiotic rich foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and yoghurt to help seal and heal your gut. Following a carnivore diet for 1-3 months is also one of the best ways to heal the gut, since the fibre in vegetables can irritate an already damaged digestive system.
How to Burn your Belly Fat
Now that you've heard about what is blocking you from burning that stored fat in your belly, let's explore some strategies to burn off that visceral belly fat.
1. Cleanse The Liver
When you clean out fat from your liver, you can begin burning visceral belly fat very very quickly. Drink freshly squeezed lemon juice and apple cider vinegar in water every day.
Do intermittent fasting, which automatically cuts back your calories. Avoid vegetable oils, sugar, starch and fructose, and eat more sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented veggies to boost detoxification, along with onions, garlic, radishes and artichokes. Soon enough you'll notice your waistline beginning to shrink.
2. Lower Insulin
Lower your insulin levels, so your body can begin burning visceral fat quickly by avoiding processed carbs, snacking between meals and eating sugar. Eating in a 6 hour window and fasting for 18 hours a day actually works wonders in burning visceral fat.
3. Lower Your Cortisol
Lowering your cortisol levels Can reduce blood sugars, and activate belly fat loss as well. Stop overtraining and do slower, more relaxed exercises like walking, swimming or cycling. Get more sleep and listen to calming music to relax.
4. Boost Your Metabolism
You can actually boost your metabolism and burn more fat by drinking green tea, spicy foods with cayenne pepper, chilli or ginger, or taking cold showers in the morning. These things trigger the body to generate more heat, so the body naturally burns more calories.
5. Strength Training
This increases your muscle mass, which boosts your metabolism and burns fat, even when you're resting. So start doing some resistance exercises, like weightlifting or bodyweight workouts in your routine.
6. Add Quality Proteins to Your Diet
You'll never change your habits if you're starving and hungry all the time, reduce your hunger by adding high quality proteins to your meals, like grass fed beef, pasture raised eggs and wild caught fish. Organic chicken, turkey, lamb, pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds are also good sources of protein, but do avoid the cheap soy protein isolates found in protein bars, as these can damage your liver, and actually worsen the state of your visceral fat.
So, following the advice that I've outlined in this post will help you to stop sabotaging your weight loss efforts, and target the more stubborn visceral fat that's hard to tap into beneath your belly.
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