Q My health checkup showed a lot of visceral fat. I'm an office worker in my forties. My arms and legs are the same, but only my belly has grown. What exactly is visceral fat?
A Visceral fat is fat that builds up between the organs in your abdomen. Unlike the subcutaneous fat you can pinch under your skin, it is active tissue that disrupts your blood pressure, blood sugar and lipids. That's why gaining belly fat while your arms and legs stay the same can easily lead to metabolic problems.
Detailed Answer
Visceral fat is fat that gathers around organs such as the stomach, intestines and liver. Unlike subcutaneous fat that you can grab with your hand, it sits deep inside the body and isn't obvious from the outside, but it continuously releases inflammatory substances and fatty acids into the blood, throwing off the balance of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol. So even at the same weight, more visceral fat means a higher risk of metabolic syndrome, fatty liver and diabetes.
Our Korean Medicine Clinic's Perspective
At Dongjedang, we see visceral fat as "surplus the body couldn't burn off, left stagnating inside the abdomen." When circulation stalls, buildup begets more buildup, so our goal is to empty out what has accumulated through detox and to revive metabolism, reducing not the surface but the deep fat (visceral fat) first.
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I've just turned fifty. Can visceral fat really come off even at this age? It seems like it won't come off as easily as when I was young, so I'm hesitating even to start.
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