Updated: July 27, 2020

Belly fat is a part of a healthy body, and most adults will have some amount of belly fat. Sometimes it’s a muffin top or stubborn belly weight that a good diet and exercise will fix. Other times it’s an internal layer of fat that surrounds your essential organs like your kidney and liver. Even the healthiest, fittest, and skinniest of us have some amount of subcutaneous fat in our abdomen, right under the skin.

However, deep belly fat, or visceral fat, is deeper and far more dangerous.

The Difference Between Regular Belly Fat and Visceral Fat (Deep Belly fat)

Fat is generally located under our skin and sometimes around our internal organs. You need some of this visceral fat because it provides an internal cushion around your organs.

According to Harvard Health, 90 percent of a person’s total body fat will be subcutaneous fat. You can feel it by pinching your waist and you can measure it with a tape measure. When you start to lose belly fat, this is the place that is likely to show the most results.

The other 10% will be visceral fat, or deep belly fat. You cannot see this type of belly fat because it is under your abdominal walls, in the spaces surrounding your organs. If this fat builds up enough, it starts to cause health problems and that’s why deep belly fat can be dangerous.

If you are already storing a lot of fat in the usual places such as under your skin, your body finds place in the deeper cavities of your stomach. This makes you more susceptible to these health problems.

Why Deep Belly Fat Can Be Dangerous

The reason why deep belly fat is dangerous is because it becomes an active part of your body. It produces harmful hormones that can cause diabetes and inflammation, according to Carol Shively, PhD, professor of pathology-comparative medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

You may be more likely to get high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and certain cancers, including breast cancer and colon cancer.

Older women tend to develop this type of visceral belly fat as they get older. Women will also gain weight in their upper thighs, arms, and hips.

Read: 5 Things Women Need To Know About Their Bodies

Visceral fat, or deep belly fat, is in the space surrounding your organs. Subcutaneous fat is right under the skin.

How To Know If You Have Deep Belly Fat

You can know if you have deep inner fat if you are visibly getting a larger waist but you are not actually gaining weight on the scale. This is the fat pushing out against your abdominal wall. Middle aged women normally experience this more than men, while younger women have less deep belly fat.

If you also have a hard time losing belly weight AND signs of chronic or low-level inflammation, this could be a way to know if you have too much visceral fat.

Anyone can develop belly fat at any age, but some people are at a greater risk of developing visceral fat. Those groups include:

• white men
• African-American women
• Asian Indian men and women
• people who are overweight or obese
• people who drink lots of sugary drinks

How To Measure Belly Fat

If you want to know how to measure your belly fat, you could start by getting a CT scan or MRI. These are 2 options, but there is another low cost way to know if you have visceral fat.

1. Get a measuring tape and stand up
2. Wrap it around your waist at your belly button. Make sure the tape is level
3. Record the measurement

What You’re Looking For

For women, the ideal healthy waist measurement should be less than 35 inches. Women who have a “pear shaped” body tend to have bigger hips and thighs. On the other hand, women with an “apple shape” normally have bigger abdomens. 

Because of this, persons with a apple shape tend to have more visceral fat (deep belly fat) if they already have more abdominal fat.

For men, the tape should ideally measure less than 40 inches. 

Related: 11 Real Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Weight

Thin People Can Also Have Deep Fat

If you are mostly inactive, it is entirely possible to have too much deep belly fat. One study showed that thin people who watched their diets but didn’t exercise were more likely to have too much visceral fat.

If you fall into any of these categories, you might want to make an appointment with a doctor to have levels of visceral fat measured.

It’s best to get a doctor’s or nutritionist’s advice on how to make health and lifestyle changes to reduce visceral fat levels.

How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat

It’s important to keep belly fat in check, especially for women who are getting older. The good news is that visceral fat is very responsive to dieting and exercise. 

Here is some more information to get you started. 

1. Exercise

Rigorous exercise will reduce all your fat, including visceral fat.  According to Harvard studies, you will lose visceral fat even if you don’t lose weight in the traditional sense. While a healthy diet sure helps, getting at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days a week will be ideal.

Simple exercises like walking counts, as long as it’s brisk enough that you work up a sweat and breathe harder, with your heart rate faster.

2. Diet

The first way to lose belly fat is to have a healthy diet but there is no magic diet to make belly fat disappear overnight. When you lose weight in general, belly fat usually goes first.

That said, if you find that you burn fat really slowly, you can consider the keto diet or a regular low carb diet.

The keto diet can help you to burn stored fat for energy by limiting the amount of carbs that you eat. If you want the free introductory guide to keto for weight loss, here’s a guide.

You can also sign up for the 3-day keto course completely free.

3. Reduce Stress

This is a very common weight loss tip but it’s very effective.

As mentioned earlier, having too much stress can lead your body to create even more visceral fat. Stress also calls inflammation and leads to other health issues.

You can reduce stress by removing or reducing daily ‘stressors’ in your life. Stress can be caused by many things including your environment, negative persons, etc.

If removing them isn’t an option, you can meditate, journal, or find other healthy coping mechanisms.

If you want to read more about losing belly fat, you can read this article.