How Do You Get Rid of Visceral Fat?

Visceral fat is a specific type of fat that accumulates around your abdominal organs and can contribute to a variety of health problems. Luckily, reducing this type of fat can help you avoid these complications. But how do you get rid of visceral fat?

Eating a balanced diet and exercising frequently can help with overall weight loss, including burning visceral fat. But that's not all: Below, browse those and other tips for how to lower visceral fat.

Your body contains several types of fat, including visceral and subcutaneous fat, per the Mayo Clinic. You may be most familiar with subcutaneous fat, which is stored directly below your skin and that you can feel by pinching yourself.

Visceral fat, on the other hand, is much harder to identify, as it's stored around the organs in your abdomen, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Per the Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health Publishing, the dangers of visceral fat include increased risk for conditions like:

• Diabetes
• Fatty liver disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Sleep apnea
• Breast cancer
• Gallbladder issues

That's in part because extra fat produces fatty substances that can get into your blood stream, travel to your liver and mess with your body's ability to regulate insulin and cholesterol, per Harvard Health Publishing. Visceral fat also produces hormones and immune system chemicals that, in excess, can put you at higher risk for the conditions listed above.

Perhaps the most important tip for how to burn visceral fat is eating a balanced diet, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Foods to incorporate in your meals include:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Whole grains like whole-wheat bread, barely and brown rice
• Legumes like lentils, peas and beans
• Lean proteins like chicken and fish

Research suggests that eating a low-carb diet may also help you get rid of visceral fat, according to a January 2015 study in the ‌Journal of Nutrition‌, which found that people who ate fewer carbohydrates lost more fat mass than those who did not.

Another smaller study of 76 people likewise found that following a low-carb diet was linked to visceral fat loss in people AMAB, per May 2015 research in ‌Metabolism‌. However, more research is needed to better understand the effects of a low-carb diet on visceral fat in people AFAB.

Low-carb foods you might eat with this diet include:

• Non-starchy vegetables like peppers and mushrooms
• Beneficial fats like olive oil and nuts
• Proteins like chicken and fish

And it's just as important to remember which types of foods to limit or avoid, per Harvard Health Publishing. For instance, trans and saturated fats, which can contribute to increased visceral fat, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. These fats can also raise your cholesterol levels, putting you at higher risk for issues like heart attack or stroke, per the Mayo Clinic.

Common sources of these fats include:

• Full-fat dairy products like milk or cheese
• Red meats like beef or venison
• Baked goods
• Fried foods

Instead, opt for sources of beneficial fat such as:

• Nuts and nut butters
• Avocado
• Tofu
• Fatty fish like salmon
• Oils like olive oil, flaxseed oil and walnut oil
• Eggs

Added sugars are another ingredient to steer clear of, as they can increase visceral fat, according to UC Berkeley University Health Services. Sugary foods to limit or avoid include:

• Baked goods
• Soda
• Candy
• Flavored yogurts
• Condiments like ketchup or barbecue sauce
• Granola
• Peanut butter
• Flavored drinks like coffee or water

Heavy alcohol drinking can contribute to weight gain (including visceral fat) compared to light or moderate drinking, according to January 2015 research in ‌Current Obesity Reports‌. That's because many alcoholic drinks are high in empty calories that lack nutritional benefits, per the Cleveland Clinic.

And when it comes to abdominal fat specifically, you may not need to drink a whole lot to notice a change in your waistline. For instance, a February 2013 review in ‌Nutrition Reviews‌ found that drinking more than 500 milliliters of beer per day (that's about a can and a half) may be linked to higher abdominal obesity in people AMAB.

However, more research is needed to better establish the relationship between alcohol and visceral fat in general and when it comes to people AFAB.

A combination of aerobic exercise and strength training can help you melt visceral fat, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week (or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise), per the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines also recommend that adults do strength training activities like weight lifting at least twice a week to complement cardio.

Burning visceral fat isn't just about diet and exercise. Making health-supporting lifestyle choices like quitting smoking can also help you to get rid of visceral belly fat.

That's because smoking cigarettes can add to abdominal and visceral fat, according to September 2012 research in ‌PLOS One‌. But quitting the habit could help prevent visceral fat gain and the health risks that can come with it.

Not sleeping enough or getting poor sleep can contribute to your risk for having obesity, per April 2013 research in ‌Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care‌. For instance, sleeping less than five hours a night has been linked to excess visceral fat, according to a May 2013 study in ‌Sleep‌.

The same study also found that having sleep apnea was associated with extra visceral fat.

Fortunately, you may help get rid of visceral fat in your stomach by getting quality sleep. One study found that people who increased their amount of sleep from six hours to seven or eight hours experienced less visceral fat gain than people who did not, per May 2014 research in ‌Obesity.‌

So, how do you get good sleep to get visceral fat down? Develop good sleep hygiene practices, including:

• Keeping a consistent sleep schedule
• Sleeping in a dark, quiet and cool room
• Relaxing before bed with a nighttime meditation, breath exercises or anything else that calms you down

When you're stressed, your cortisol hormone levels can spike. And over the long term, high cortisol levels can contribute to accumulating visceral fat, according to an April 2018 review in ‌Current Obesity Reports‌.

Eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and quitting smoking are all key ways to lower your stress levels (and, consequently, how to potentially lose visceral fat), per the Cleveland Clinic. Other methods include:

• Trying relaxation techniques like meditation or breathing exercises
• Avoid things that trigger your stress
• Practicing self-care
• Therapy

It can be difficult to make the lifestyle changes that can help you lose weight and lower visceral fat. But having support along the way can help you stick to new habits.

For instance, June 2016 research in the ‌Journal of Behavioral Medicine‌ found that receiving positive support from family and friends (like compliments and active participation in weight-loss habits) helped people maintain weight loss more effectively than instructional support (which is verbal directions for how to lose weight and keep it off).