---
title: 'How to Destroy Visceral Belly Fat Forever'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=taPJ2fvSzKY'
video_id: 'taPJ2fvSzKY'
date: 2026-07-22
duration_sec: 700
channel: 'Jeremy Ethier'
---

# How to Destroy Visceral Belly Fat Forever

> Source: [How to Destroy Visceral Belly Fat Forever](https://youtube.com/watch?v=taPJ2fvSzKY)

## Summary

This video explains the difference between subcutaneous and visceral belly fat, emphasizing that visceral fat is more dangerous and harder to remove via surgery. It presents a science-backed plan involving dietary swaps (reducing saturated fat and added sugar, increasing protein) and specific exercise routines to reduce visceral fat effectively within 30 days.

### Key Points

- **Two Types of Belly Fat** [00:02] — Subcutaneous fat is visible under skin, while visceral fat wraps around organs and releases inflammatory molecules linked to heart disease and early death. Visceral fat cannot be removed by liposuction.
- **Dayton's Case Study** [00:44] — Dayton had 33% body fat with 200g of visceral fat despite not looking overweight. After following the plan, his visceral fat dropped 50% in 10 weeks.
- **Saturated Fat vs. Polyunsaturated Fat** [01:27] — A 2014 study overfed two groups 750 extra calories from muffins. The saturated fat group gained double the visceral fat compared to the polyunsaturated fat group, which also gained more lean mass.
- **Saturated Fat Limit** [02:25] — Keep saturated fat intake below 20-30g per day. Dayton consumed over 50g from one meal. Swap fatty meats for lean cuts and include fatty fish.
- **Added Sugar and Visceral Fat** [03:51] — Fructose (from added sugar, not fruit) significantly increases visceral fat. A 2009 study showed fructose group gained more visceral fat and worsened insulin sensitivity.
- **Protein's Role** [05:38] — Doubling protein intake naturally reduces calorie intake and leads to fat loss. Swapping sugar for protein (e.g., protein powder in coffee) helps reduce visceral fat.
- **Calorie Deficit and Visceral Fat** [07:40] — Visceral fat is often the first fat mobilized in a calorie deficit. Losing 10 pounds can shrink visceral fat by 30%.
- **Exercise for Visceral Fat** [08:49] — Moderate to high-intensity cardio and interval training are most effective. Aim for 75% max heart rate. Short 15-25 minute sessions 2-3 times per week, plus 8,000 steps daily.

### Conclusion

Visceral fat is dangerous but responds well to dietary changes (reducing saturated fat and added sugar, increasing protein) and specific exercise. A calorie deficit accelerates loss, and consistent moderate-to-high intensity cardio can reduce it even without weight loss.

## Transcript

most people have. But this is just one type of belly fat. While everyone hidden layer of belly fat called visceral fat. It can not only make your gut look bloated, but it wraps around your organs, pumping out inflammatory
molecules linked to heart disease and even early death. Now, you might be like, "Well, Jeremy, if it's so bad, I'll just zap it with lipos suction." Nope. Not even a surgeon can get to it. But you can. Visceral fat is actually
easier to get rid of. With the right plan, you can see and feel it decreasing in just 30 days, just like my brother-in-law, Dayton. The funny thing about Dayton is everything on him is small except his belly. He's actually
not overly fat anywhere else. So, it was surprising when his DEXA scan clocked surprising when his DEXA scan clocked him at 33% body fat. But with,200 g of visceral fat hiding deep in his gut, it makes sense. That's far higher than what
Kevin has, even though he's at 38% body fat, and that's 50 times more than what I have. But after he followed the plan I'll share with you today, his gut quickly tightened up. And after just 10 weeks, his visceral fat dropped down by
50%. So with normal belly fat, there's no foods that increase it directly. It's all about how many calories you consume. But that's not necessarily the case with visceral fat. If two people ate the exact same amount of calories, one of
them could store way more visceral belly fat than the other because of certain foods they're eating. In a 2014 experiment, scientists put this to the test. They took 39 healthy adults and split them into two groups. The
researchers overfed each group with an extra 750 calories a day from muffins. But in group one, the muffins were made using polyunsaturated fat. This is the fat you find in foods like fish, nuts, and seeds. Whereas the muffins fed to
group two were made using saturated fat. This fat you find in butter and fatty meats. After 7 weeks of eating these muffins, both groups gained the same amount of weight. But group two, the one that ate saturated fats, they gained
double the amount of visceral belly fat compared to group one. In fact, group one didn't just gain less fat, they actually ended up building a little more lean mass as well. But exactly how much saturated fat is too much. And what
sources suggest keeping your saturated fat intake to less than about 20 to 30 g per day, the equivalent to this much butter. And when we scanned Dayton's Bitless with Science Plus app that I got him to start tracking his diet with, it
contained almost 50 g of fat with almost forget that's just one of his meals. With his breakfast and lunch, some days he was consuming over 50 g of saturated fat. But this doesn't mean that you
Just balance them out with more unsaturated fats. So instead of having really fatty meat like ribeye every day, now Dayton just has it once or twice a week. He also balances it out with fatty fish, which are loaded with more
unsaturated fats and chooses leaner cuts of meats when he can. Swapping ribeye steak for top sirloin steak already drops the saturated fat intake by 15 g. It's also worth noting that grass-fed meats tend to be lower in saturated fats
and higher in the unsaturated fats that we do want, but they are far more expensive, and the difference is honestly quite small. For more realistic swaps, here's a list of the biggest culprits for saturated fats, as well as
of your daily fats to come from. But here's where food choices gets even more important. Some people seem to be genetically more likely to store visceral fat, especially those of Asian, Indian, or Hispanic descent. But is that
really just genetics? Or could it just be their cultural diets are usually higher in the next foods that's been shown to increase visceral belly fat? I honestly didn't realize this, but many Asian dishes I loved are actually packed
Two tablespoons of sugar. Sugar. Brown sugar. Not to mention, everyone's favorite bubble tea contains up to 50 grams of it. And over 30% of the Taiwanese people consume something like
this at least once a day. But what's so bad about added sugar? Well, added sugar is actually made up of two different types of sugar, glucose and fructose. And back in 2009, scientists wanted to find out if one of
these types of sugar contributes more to visceral belly fat. So, they had people drink the exact same amount of calories, but from a drink that was sweetened with but from a drink that was sweetened with either pure fructose or pure glucose.
After 10 weeks, only the fructose group significantly increase their visceral belly fat. On top of that, the fructose group's insulin sensitivity also worsened, meaning their bodies now had a harder time handling carbs. Now, when
you hear fructose, you might think of fruit. And you're right. Fruit does contain fructose. But fruit also comes with fiber and water. So, it's incredibly hard to overeat, especially at the amounts you'd need to for it to
start affecting your visceral fat. But table sugar and high fructose corn syrup, those are the real culprits. And foods you might not even expect are loaded with them. Not just bubble tea, cereal, granola, sweetened yogurt,
juice, jam, and even condiments like ketchup. But rather than eliminating these foods altogether, a much better approach is to just replace some of them with a food that can decrease visceral fat, not increase it. Protein. Back in
2005, scientists took a group of people and didn't instruct them to do anything aside from double their current protein intake. Surprisingly, again, despite not being instructed to eat less or change anything else, they naturally began
eating fewer calories and over 12 weeks lost over 10 lbs with almost all of it being pure fat. While the study didn't measure visceral fat directly, the large reductions in total fat mass combined with the appetite suppressing effects of
protein, they create the ideal condition for reducing visceral fat. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you go dumping out grandma's cookie jar and filling it with chicken breast, there's easier ways to swap sugar for protein without actually
changing much. For example, my mom is a doctor and even though she knows better, she could not break her habit of loading her morning coffee with cream and two heaping spoonfuls of sugar. So, I replaced her sugar stash with my French
vanilla built with protein powder. And now she mixes half a scoop of it with a little bit of milk and pours that in her coffee. And each month, instead of consuming 750 grams of sugar plus 45 grams of saturated fat from her cream,
grams of saturated fat from her cream, she's getting an extra 450 g of protein. Whereas Dayton's culprit was Chicago mixed popcorn. Made with real cheese, butter, and 100% whole grain. Yeah, that I I like
fire. So, I got him a bag of plain microwavable popcorn. Topped it with a mix of our Built with Science salted caramel protein, sugar-free syrup, and cheddar seasoning. Pop that in the
freezer for 10 minutes, and bam! Cuts out 20 gram of sugar and replaces it It's good. Flavor is like pretty spot on. Here's some more ways you can easily replace sugar with protein. And here's
how you can actually apply all of this into a full day of eating. Now, this is just a diet part of the full 30-day plan I'll show you later on. But while this meal plan can help prevent you from gaining more visceral fat, it's actually
you're still eating too many calories overall. The good news though is that as soon as you get into a calorie deficit, visceral belly fat is typically the first fat that your body mobilizes for energy. And the crazy part is this can
happen even if you're still eating a bunch of saturated fat and sugar. why research has shown that even just losing 10 pounds can shrink this row fat by as much as 30%. Which is the closest thing to spot reduction as it gets. But
how many calories you should eat will differ from everyone else. For example, my fitness app discovered that I see the best fat loss results eating around 2300 calories per day. Whereas for Dayton, it noticed he has to go a little bit lower.
It'll continue adjusting his calories as it goes. So stay tuned because I'll be transformation and releasing a future video. But although a calorie deficit is going to be the most effective tool to burn off visual fat, there is still one
more strategy that's been shown to decrease it even if you're not in a calorie deficit and even if you don't lose any weight. So you know how with special exercise? Well, unfortunately doesn't seem like that's
But this year belly fat might be different. Researchers noticed this back in 2023 where they conducted one of the largest studies to ever look at how cardio affects visceral fat. First, they found that all types of exercise were
great for reducing viseral fat. But when they took a closer look at the data, they noticed two types of exercise that rose above the rest. Moderate to highintensity cardio and interval training. Unlike your stubborn love
handles just lounging under your skin, visceral fat seems to actually listen when your body sends in the fat mobilizing hormone known as catakolamines, which spikes during higher intensity exercise. Now, while
this might make it seem like you need to kill yourself with endless allout sprints, that's actually not the case. The exercise required to torch visceral fat based on this study required getting above 75% of your max heart rate. It's
not a walk in the park, but it's far from an allout sprint. Even better, these types of workouts are quick if you do them right. Even just short 15 to 25 minute interval cardio sessions done two to three times per week is enough to
make a measurable dent. Here's how to do them. For each interval session, pick an exercise you can go pretty hard at. One paper did find that running could be slightly more effective than cycling at reducing visual fat, but there were too
meaningful. I personally enjoy sprints, especially when it's nice out, but I found that cycling, rowing, or even the elliptical are much easier to recover from. Spend 5 minutes warming up. Then, when you're ready, go hard for 30
seconds. It doesn't have to be all out, but you should be breathing hard enough that you have a hard time holding the conversation. Then, slow it down and recover for 90 seconds. You want to repeat that for 6
to 10 rounds. But the downside with interval training is it's tough and it takes time to recover from. So you can't do it very often. And what seems to be the most important for reducing visual fat is how much exercise you do in total
rather than just how hard you go. Which is why, especially on your off days, set a walking goal of at least 8,000 steps. It's low impact, easy to stick to, and visceral fat over time. Here's an example of what this could look like for
the next 30 days. Dayton's already seen impressive results by applying this. And with our Bitless Science Plus app, he was able to easily track his nutrition and get personalized workouts every week to guide him every step of the way. And
you can try too for 2 weeks free by either scanning this code right here or heading to builtwithsize.com, which I'll also link below. But while what I shared with you today can help tighten up your midsection, to get abs that actually
pop, I would highly recommend adding two exercises. And you can check out this exercises. And you can check out this video next to see what they are.