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The High Performance Journal - July 23rd, 2024

The client was sitting right across from me on a Zoom call.

He had sent me the body fat scan he did with his doctor and was waiting for me to give him the lowdown on what I found.

It wasn't good.

He had just undergone a DEXA scan, one of the most reliable methods for measuring body fat.

The DEXA scan assessed his body composition and quantified his visceral fat, the most dangerous fat in the body.

The healthy range of visceral fat is getting as close to 0 as possible. His VAT clocked in at 2.46 lbs. Yikes.

After I told him the consequences of having too much visceral fat on his body, he got freaked out.

Thankfully, I knew exactly how to fix it because I'd done it with thousands of clients of times before him.

4 months later, I'm happy to say we reduced his visceral fat from 2.46 lbs to 1.06 lbs!

So today, I want to share the protocol we used to drop his visceral fat by over 50%.

How To Lose Visceral Fat (Use This Protocol)

Table of Contents

1. What is visceral fat and why do we collect it?
2. The dangers of having too much visceral fat.
3. The causes of visceral fat.
4. The protocol to eliminate visceral fat from your life.

What Is Visceral Fat?

Photo courtesy of ​DrJockers.com​ 

You know what extra layer of flab you can pinch on your belly? That's subcutaneous fat. It's the surface-level stuff you can see and poke at.

But underneath that is visceral fat. It's the cousin that hides deep inside your abdomen, sitting on the couch next to your vital organs like it's Netflix and chill.

You can't see it, but boy oh boy, it's there scheming and plotting against your health.

The real name for Visceral fat is Visceral adipose tissue aka. VAT.

"Adipose" refers to fat, while "visceral" pertains to the body's internal organs.

Why do we collect visceral fat?

Visceral fat piles up when you binge on junk food, skimp on exercise, and stress out like a maniac. Add in crappy sleep and too much booze, and you've got the perfect storm.

Genetics also play a sneaky role, making it easier for some folks to accumulate this nasty fat.

Overall, genetics is the gun, and the environment is the trigger. You can't change one but you can definitely change the other.

What Are The Dangers Of Having Too Much Visceral Fat?

Visceral fat isn't just content to sit there. It's there to wreak havoc, sending out inflammatory signals like a toxic coworker spreading office gossip.

This fat can wrap around your important organs like the liver, pancreas, and intestines, making your insides look like a bad episode of Hoarders.

It messes with your hormones, raises blood pressure, and makes you more insulin-resistant, setting you up for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and a whole host of other crap you don't want.

How Much Visceral Fat Is Too Much?

You want to be as close as possible to 0 lbs of visceral fat. The best way to measure this is a CT scan, MRI, or DEXA scan.

If you don't have access to those, you can do these alternate tests:

Waistline test: If you’re a woman and your waist measures 35 inches or larger, you’re at risk for health problems from visceral fat. Men are at risk for health problems when their waist measures 40 inches or larger.

Waist-to-Height Ratio: Some health experts also suggest using the waist-to-height ratio as a more accurate measure. The recommendation is that your waist circumference should be less than half your height.

For example, if you are 70 inches tall (5'10"), your waist should be less than 35 inches.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio: Another measure is the waist-to-hip ratio, which compares the circumference of your waist to that of your hips. A healthy ratio is generally considered to be:

• Men: Less than 0.90
• Women: Less than 0.85

Visceral fat calculator: Scientists at the Luxembourg Institute of Health created a calculator to estimate the amount of visceral fat in one's body. Access it by clicking here​.

The Protocol For Eliminating Visceral Fat

#1 - Eat Smart

Eating single-ingredient foods while getting adequate amounts of protein​ is crucial when losing visceral fat.

This is an important distinction because you don't want to lose weight. You want to lose fat while keeping as much muscle as you can.

Here's what we did for our client:

We cleaned up his diet first by ditching the processed junk and sugar and prioritizing nutrient dense foods​.

Each morning, we prioritized getting a high-protein meal, such as a protein smoothie or an egg omelet.

Each lunch combined single-ingredient proteins, legumes, veggies, and carbs.

Dinner was usually a big piece of meat, along with veggies and a carb source like potatoes.

Initially, we tracked our foods to ensure we got enough protein and calories. After about 3 weeks, he could eyeball his meals without tracking.

This helped him lose the visceral fat and drop 40 lbs off his body!

#2 - Lift Weights and Move

A combination of weight lifting and moving your body is the ultimate exercise protocol for reducing your visceral fat levels.

Here's what we did for our client:

First, we had him stop one important thing that was stopping him from getting results: doing random workouts.

He was doing a mish-mash of his own made-up weight training routine, Barry's Bootcamp, and Peleton classes.

We simplified his workouts by doing three 30-minute weight training sessions a week, focusing on getting stronger in the same exercises using ​progressive overload​, much like we do in our ​Lean Body 90 course​.

He loved doing cardio, so we had him do that on his off days while he was getting at least ​8k steps a day​, which equaled one 30-minute walk a day.

This exercise protocol helped him drop the fat, gain 2.1 lbs of lean mass, and boost his resting metabolic rate.

Important Note: One of the best ways to lose visceral fat through exercise is through high-intensity interval training, but due to his stress levels, we opted for a more low-intensity approach.

#3 - Chill Out

Stress is a fat magnet. It triggers the release of cortisol, a hormone that tells your body to store fat, especially around your belly.

It also makes you crave junk food, leading to weight gain. Chronic stress disrupts sleep and metabolism, compounding the problem. Stress is a double-whammy: it makes you eat more and store more fat.

Here's what we did for our client:

Our client runs one of the largest wealth funds on the planet. His hours are long and never-ending. Stress is a part of the job but we helped mitigate it through timing.

Meal timing: He was used to fasting until noon but didn't realize that this eating style compounded his mega-stressful life, which resulted in nighttime eating binges.

We ​fasted the opposite way​ by eating a hearty high-protein breakfast. This simple switch helped him manage his stress throughout the day and eliminate nighttime snacking.

Exercise timing: We had him do his workouts at the beginning of the day while scheduling a "reset" walk after lunch. This helped him approach his day more calmly, and the walk helped him reset his mind for the rest of the day.

One thing to mention about stress is that we can invite more of it through perception.

Our ability to understand what's important and unimportant and the fact that worrying doesn't fix tomorrow's problems but steals today's peace is a major factor in how you experience it.

#4 - Eliminate Booze

When trying to eliminate visceral fat, you must set up an environment that supports it.

Alcohol is empty calories that lead to weight gain without nutritional benefits. When you consume it, your body prioritizes processing the booze before any other calorie.

Alcohol also increases cortisol levels, promoting visceral fat storage. Plus, drinking often pairs with poor food choices, adding to the calorie surplus.

Here's what we did for our client:

At the start, we asked him to limit his drinking to a glass or two on the weekends.

He loved how he felt so much that he decided to forgo it for the remainder of the 4 months.

#5 - Sleep Like a High Performer

Poor sleep messes with your hormones, increasing ghrelin (your hunger hormone) and decreasing leptin (the hormone that tells you you're full).

Lack of sleep also raises cortisol levels, promoting visceral fat storage. Plus, when you're tired, you're less likely to exercise and more likely to crave junk food.

Here's what we did for our client:

I want to say that we fixed his sleep, and now he's sleeping like a high-performance athlete, but that was not the case.

His health habits, combined with his reduced alcohol intake, improved the quality of his sleep by a significant margin, but this is still a part we're working on.

This is the next part we're working on, and we'll use many of the sleep principles you can access in this free resource​.

Say Bye Bye To Visceral Fat

Something I tell my clients all the time is that you don't need a six-pack. You want to get your body to a level where you'll avoid prevent diseases.

A big part is getting rid of visceral fat from your body.

While my client made significant strides toward eliminating his visceral fat, we still have work to do.

Which is also a reminder to be patient with yourself. Rome was not built in a day, nor will your visceral fat disappear in a week.

But with enough time, you will eliminate it and achieve a level of health your body will thank you for.

Onwards and upwards 🚀

- Dan

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help:

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