JJ Virgin explains why visceral fat around your organs is dangerous: it releases inflammatory compounds that trigger insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Chronic stress raises cortisol, which breaks down muscle and drives belly fat storage. Inflammation and high insulin create a feedback loop that makes the problem worse.
Beyond the aesthetic part, why is belly fat such a big problem? So first of all, we got two basic kinds of fat. We got subcutaneous fat, you hear that pinch and itch, and then we have this visceral fat or the VAT fat. And that's really what I'm talking about here. So visceral adipose tissue, VAT fat, is surrounding all those internal organs. It's deep in the abdominal cavity. And so it's like things like the liver, the pancreas, the intestines,. And so it's accumulating here, and that is what gives you that apple shape. Now, again, subcutaneous, you know this stuff, you can pinch it, right? Remember the old pinch an inch? And people have more subcutaneous, they might have like more around their thighs, more around their hips. They're more pear-shaped. Bet you haven't heard the apple and the pear in a while. Now, the reason that VAT fat is so bad is because of what it does to your overall health. First of all, bad for your metabolism, bad metabolic impact, because visceral adipose tissue is actually more metabolically active and it releases more of these inflammatory cytokines and free fatty acids into the bloodstream. So when this happens, these substances can interfere with insulin signaling, actually promote insulin resistance, and contribute to the development of a whole bunch of bad stuff like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. So I hope you're thinking, I really don't want the vat fat and I wanna get rid of the vat fat. So what are the things that cause vat fat? Well, one of them, I always used to say, okay, if this is bigger, this is my stress belly because elevated cortisol levels, stress, can do a number on vat fat. In fact, studies show that excess cortisol can promote the storage of fat in the abdominal region. Here's what goes on. First of all, cortisol, high stress, stimulates the breakdown of muscle protein, which we never want to have happen. Then you've got these amino acids released, then they're converted to sugar by the liver. Then your blood sugar is elevated, which of course triggers an insulin release. Then that insulin release promotes the storage of that sugar as fat here. Now, Cortisol's one. Insulin is another driver for vat fat, and insulin resistance can contribute to vat fat in a variety of different ways. First of all, the cells become less responsive to insulin. When that happens, what does the body do? It produces more insulin. And when you have higher insulin levels, that then promotes fat storage and especially fat in the abdominal area. When your body starts to become resistant to insulin, it makes it way harder to burn off stored fat. Then this means that your body is going to have more fat accumulate. The other one besides cortisol and insulin is inflammation because chronic inflammation is another driver of bat fat. So when you have ongoing inflammation in your body, and here's the challenge, more fat, more inflammation, more inflammation, more fat. But when you have more inflammation, it's harder for your body to do a good balance, strike a good balance between storing fat and breaking it down. This can actually cause more fat cells to grow in your abdominal area. Plus, inflammation makes it hard for your body to use stored fat for energy. Guess what that means? Even more fat accumulating around your waist. Now, when there's too much inflammation and too much belly fat, it can make it even harder for your body to then use insulin properly. So you can see how this whole thing becomes a super vicious cycle with inflammation and insulin resistance keep adding more fat here.
