How Can We Help Clients Manage Belly (Visceral) Fat?

Are there healthy ways to lose visceral fat and keep it off?

Understanding body fat distribution and the role visceral fat plays in the human body is critical.

According to the Endocrine Society, visceral fat is a hormonally active part of total body fat wrapped around internal organs and increases the risk of medical disorders such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and coronary artery disease.

In fact, too much visceral fat may be one of the leading causes of insulin resistance. This shows evidence to how dropping visceral fat can be important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Who’s at risk?

Grab a tape measure. Men with a waist circumference of more than 40 inches and women with more than 35 inches indicate excess abdominal fat, putting them at higher risk. Age and genetics both play a role in developing visceral fat. Men are more likely than women to carry extra abdominal weight, but as women age, they are more likely to develop visceral fat even if they don’t gain weight (1).

But how do we help our clients manage their visceral fat?

There’s no magic solution, but research suggests that bringing weight under control with a healthy, sustainable diet and exercise may help clients shed weight and excess visceral fat (2).

Create a healthy food plan for life.

If your clients overeat and exercise too little, they will likely carry more weight along with excess visceral fat. Therefore, it’s important to keep portion sizes in check and focus on a healthy dietary pattern that includes:

• Plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
• Lean sources of protein and low-fat dairy products.
• Limiting added sugar and saturated fat and instead, include moderate amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — found in avocado, fish, nuts, and certain vegetable oils.

Most of the fat in avocados is unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats), making avocados a great substitute for foods high in saturated fat.

Science also suggests there may be a role for avocados in visceral weight management.

The Avocado Nutrition Center funded these studies. Although more research is needed to generalize the results to all people, these studies add to a growing body of evidence studying the weight management effects of eating avocados. One serving of avocado is equivalent to a third of a medium avocado.

A clinical trial of 105 overweight-obese adults studied whether eating a diet with one avocado a day for 12 weeks would alter body fat distribution. Daily avocado consumption was associated with a decrease in visceral fat among women. (3) The participants were randomly divided into two groups. The treatment group consumed one meal a day with a whole avocado, while the control group consumed an isocaloric meal matched for macronutrient composition without an avocado. Isocaloric substitution of avocado for other foods may have provided the benefit. Providing clients with simple swaps to include more dietary fiber and replacing food higher in energy density with avocado may help your patients consume fewer calories and, manage their weight. Nutrient-dense avocados are made up of mostly water and fiber and are considered low-energy dense fruit.

More research suggests that the addition of one large avocado daily does not impact visceral adipose tissue volume despite higher calorie consumption.

In the most extensive clinical trial of its kind, researchers assessed the impact of consuming one avocado a day for six months on weight-related measures, markers of cardiometabolic risk, and diet quality in 1008 free-living adults with elevated waist circumference. Despite the additional calories, daily avocado consumption did not impact the primary outcome of visceral fat or some secondary outcomes, body weight and hepatic fat, compared to the control group. Diet quality improved among the avocado group compared to the control group (4).

Encourage moderate to high-intensity physical activity.

A recent meta-analysis shows that a moderate to high-intensity aerobic exercise program, even without a reduced-calorie diet, may reduce visceral fat in overweight males and females. The purpose of this review was to assess the overall effect of different types of exercise programs, without calorie restriction, on visceral fat management (5).

For avocado-inspired recipes and healthy meal planning tips specially designed for health professionals, please visit our recipe section.

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