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This is the belly fat no one wants, but
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most people have. But this is just one
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type of belly fat. While everyone
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focuses on what they see, there's a
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hidden layer of belly fat called
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visceral fat. It can not only make your
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gut look bloated, but it wraps around
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your organs, pumping out inflammatory
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molecules linked to heart disease and
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even early death. Now, you might be
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like, "Well, Jeremy, if it's so bad,
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I'll just zap it with lipos suction."
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Nope. Not even a surgeon can get to it.
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But you can. Visceral fat is actually
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easier to get rid of. With the right
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plan, you can see and feel it decreasing
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in just 30 days, just like my
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brother-in-law, Dayton. The funny thing
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about Dayton is everything on him is
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small except his belly. He's actually
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not overly fat anywhere else. So, it was
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surprising when his DEXA scan clocked
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him at 33% body fat. But with,200 g of
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visceral fat hiding deep in his gut, it
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makes sense. That's far higher than what
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Kevin has, even though he's at 38% body
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fat, and that's 50 times more than what
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I have. But after he followed the plan
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I'll share with you today, his gut
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quickly tightened up. And after just 10
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weeks, his visceral fat dropped down by
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50%. So with normal belly fat, there's
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no foods that increase it directly. It's
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all about how many calories you consume.
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But that's not necessarily the case with
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visceral fat. If two people ate the
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exact same amount of calories, one of
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them could store way more visceral belly
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fat than the other because of certain
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foods they're eating. In a 2014
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experiment, scientists put this to the
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test. They took 39 healthy adults and
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split them into two groups. The
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researchers overfed each group with an
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extra 750 calories a day from muffins.
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But in group one, the muffins were made
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using polyunsaturated fat. This is the
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fat you find in foods like fish, nuts,
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and seeds. Whereas the muffins fed to
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group two were made using saturated fat.
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This fat you find in butter and fatty
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meats. After 7 weeks of eating these
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muffins, both groups gained the same
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amount of weight. But group two, the one
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that ate saturated fats, they gained
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double the amount of visceral belly fat
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compared to group one. In fact, group
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one didn't just gain less fat, they
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actually ended up building a little more
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lean mass as well. But exactly how much
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saturated fat is too much. And what
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should you eat instead? Well, most
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sources suggest keeping your saturated
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fat intake to less than about 20 to 30 g
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per day, the equivalent to this much
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butter. And when we scanned Dayton's
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favorite ribeye steak dinner with our
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Bitless with Science Plus app that I got
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him to start tracking his diet with, it
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contained almost 50 g of fat with almost
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half of it being saturated. And don't
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forget that's just one of his meals.
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With his breakfast and lunch, some days
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he was consuming over 50 g of saturated
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fat. But this doesn't mean that you
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should completely cut out these foods.
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Just balance them out with more
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unsaturated fats. So instead of having
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really fatty meat like ribeye every day,
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now Dayton just has it once or twice a
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week. He also balances it out with fatty
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fish, which are loaded with more
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unsaturated fats and chooses leaner cuts
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of meats when he can. Swapping ribeye
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steak for top sirloin steak already
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drops the saturated fat intake by 15 g.
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It's also worth noting that grass-fed
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meats tend to be lower in saturated fats
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and higher in the unsaturated fats that
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we do want, but they are far more
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expensive, and the difference is
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honestly quite small. For more realistic
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swaps, here's a list of the biggest
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culprits for saturated fats, as well as
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a list of the best foods you want most
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of your daily fats to come from. But
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here's where food choices gets even more
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important. Some people seem to be
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genetically more likely to store
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visceral fat, especially those of Asian,
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Indian, or Hispanic descent. But is that
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really just genetics? Or could it just
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be their cultural diets are usually
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higher in the next foods that's been
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shown to increase visceral belly fat? I
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honestly didn't realize this, but many
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Asian dishes I loved are actually packed
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with added sugar.
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One raw sugar.
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Two tablespoons of sugar.
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Sugar.
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The sugar. Sugar.
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Brown sugar. Not to mention, everyone's
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favorite bubble tea contains up to 50
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grams of it. And over 30% of the
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Taiwanese people consume something like
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this at least once a day. But what's so
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bad about added sugar?
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Well, added sugar is actually made up of
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two different types of sugar, glucose
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and fructose. And back in 2009,
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scientists wanted to find out if one of
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these types of sugar contributes more to
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visceral belly fat. So, they had people
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drink the exact same amount of calories,
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but from a drink that was sweetened with
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either pure fructose or pure glucose.
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After 10 weeks, only the fructose group
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significantly increase their visceral
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belly fat. On top of that, the fructose
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group's insulin sensitivity also
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worsened, meaning their bodies now had a
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harder time handling carbs. Now, when
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you hear fructose, you might think of
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fruit. And you're right. Fruit does
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contain fructose. But fruit also comes
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with fiber and water. So, it's
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incredibly hard to overeat, especially
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at the amounts you'd need to for it to
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start affecting your visceral fat. But
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table sugar and high fructose corn
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syrup, those are the real culprits. And
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foods you might not even expect are
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loaded with them. Not just bubble tea,
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cereal, granola, sweetened yogurt,
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juice, jam, and even condiments like
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ketchup. But rather than eliminating
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these foods altogether, a much better
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approach is to just replace some of them
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with a food that can decrease visceral
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fat, not increase it. Protein. Back in
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2005, scientists took a group of people
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and didn't instruct them to do anything
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aside from double their current protein
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intake. Surprisingly, again, despite not
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being instructed to eat less or change
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anything else, they naturally began
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eating fewer calories and over 12 weeks
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lost over 10 lbs with almost all of it
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being pure fat. While the study didn't
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measure visceral fat directly, the large
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reductions in total fat mass combined
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with the appetite suppressing effects of
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protein, they create the ideal condition
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for reducing visceral fat. Wait, wait,
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wait, wait. Before you go dumping out
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grandma's cookie jar and filling it with
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chicken breast, there's easier ways to
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swap sugar for protein without actually
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changing much. For example, my mom is a
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doctor and even though she knows better,
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she could not break her habit of loading
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her morning coffee with cream and two
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heaping spoonfuls of sugar. So, I
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replaced her sugar stash with my French
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vanilla built with protein powder. And
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now she mixes half a scoop of it with a
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little bit of milk and pours that in her
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coffee. And each month, instead of
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consuming 750 grams of sugar plus 45
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grams of saturated fat from her cream,
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she's getting an extra 450 g of protein.
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Whereas Dayton's culprit was Chicago
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mixed popcorn. Made with real cheese,
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butter, and 100% whole grain.
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Yeah, that I I like
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caramel. And these sound these sound
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fire.
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So, I got him a bag of plain
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microwavable popcorn. Topped it with a
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mix of our Built with Science salted
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caramel protein, sugar-free syrup, and
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cheddar seasoning. Pop that in the
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freezer for 10 minutes, and bam! Cuts
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out 20 gram of sugar and replaces it
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with 29 g of protein.
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It's good. Flavor is like pretty spot
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on.
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Yeah,
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but popcorn is just the beginning.
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Here's some more ways you can easily
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replace sugar with protein. And here's
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how you can actually apply all of this
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into a full day of eating. Now, this is
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just a diet part of the full 30-day plan
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I'll show you later on. But while this
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meal plan can help prevent you from
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gaining more visceral fat, it's actually
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not going to do much to get rid of it if
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you're still eating too many calories
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overall. The good news though is that as
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soon as you get into a calorie deficit,
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visceral belly fat is typically the
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first fat that your body mobilizes for
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energy. And the crazy part is this can
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happen even if you're still eating a
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bunch of saturated fat and sugar.
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Although I wouldn't recommend it. It's
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why research has shown that even just
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losing 10 pounds can shrink this row fat
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by as much as 30%. Which is the closest
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thing to spot reduction as it gets. But
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how many calories you should eat will
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differ from everyone else. For example,
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my fitness app discovered that I see the
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best fat loss results eating around 2300
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calories per day. Whereas for Dayton, it
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noticed he has to go a little bit lower.
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It'll continue adjusting his calories as
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it goes. So stay tuned because I'll be
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documenting every step of his
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transformation and releasing a future
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video. But although a calorie deficit is
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going to be the most effective tool to
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burn off visual fat, there is still one
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more strategy that's been shown to
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decrease it even if you're not in a
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calorie deficit and even if you don't
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lose any weight. So you know how
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everyone tries to target their belly fat
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with special exercise? Well,
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unfortunately doesn't seem like that's
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possible.
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But this year belly fat might be
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different. Researchers noticed this back
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in 2023 where they conducted one of the
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largest studies to ever look at how
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cardio affects visceral fat. First, they
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found that all types of exercise were
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great for reducing viseral fat. But when
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they took a closer look at the data,
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they noticed two types of exercise that
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rose above the rest. Moderate to
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highintensity cardio and interval
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training. Unlike your stubborn love
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handles just lounging under your skin,
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visceral fat seems to actually listen
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when your body sends in the fat
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mobilizing hormone known as
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catakolamines, which spikes during
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higher intensity exercise. Now, while
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this might make it seem like you need to
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kill yourself with endless allout
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sprints, that's actually not the case.
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The exercise required to torch visceral
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fat based on this study required getting
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above 75% of your max heart rate. It's
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not a walk in the park, but it's far
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from an allout sprint. Even better,
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these types of workouts are quick if you
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do them right. Even just short 15 to 25
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minute interval cardio sessions done two
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to three times per week is enough to
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make a measurable dent. Here's how to do
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them. For each interval session, pick an
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exercise you can go pretty hard at. One
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paper did find that running could be
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slightly more effective than cycling at
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reducing visual fat, but there were too
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many limitations for it to be
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meaningful. I personally enjoy sprints,
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especially when it's nice out, but I
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found that cycling, rowing, or even the
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elliptical are much easier to recover
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from. Spend 5 minutes warming up. Then,
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when you're ready, go hard for 30
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seconds. It doesn't have to be all out,
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but you should be breathing hard enough
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that you have a hard time holding the
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conversation.
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Then, slow it down and recover for 90
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seconds. You want to repeat that for 6
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to 10 rounds. But the downside with
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interval training is it's tough and it
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takes time to recover from. So you can't
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do it very often. And what seems to be
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the most important for reducing visual
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fat is how much exercise you do in total
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rather than just how hard you go. Which
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is why, especially on your off days, set
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a walking goal of at least 8,000 steps.
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It's low impact, easy to stick to, and
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still helps you chip away at your
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visceral fat over time. Here's an
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example of what this could look like for
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the next 30 days. Dayton's already seen
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impressive results by applying this. And
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with our Bitless Science Plus app, he
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was able to easily track his nutrition
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and get personalized workouts every week
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to guide him every step of the way. And
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you can try too for 2 weeks free by
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either scanning this code right here or
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heading to builtwithsize.com, which I'll
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also link below. But while what I shared
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with you today can help tighten up your
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midsection, to get abs that actually
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pop, I would highly recommend adding two
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exercises. And you can check out this
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video next to see what they are.
