Full Transcript
Most people think that body fat is simply bodyfat, but where you store fat actually is the most important thing. And one particular type of fat called visceral fat, is especially important because too much of it is strongly associated with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome.
Now today, I want to explain what visceral fat actually is, how it differs from fat underneath your skin, the subcutaneous fat, and why your body develops visceral fat in the first place.
And then let’s look at some fascinating research showing that green tea, especially the catechins found in green, tea may help reduce viseral fat. Now, first, let us distinguish the different types of body fat the fat you can pinch underneath.
Your skin is called sub cutaneous, fat We store this fat around the abdomen, hips, thighs, arms, and other parts of the body. Subcutaneous fat is not simply useless tissue, it’s a design feature.
Fat is an important energy storage system. It helps to insulate the bodies, cushions, tissues, functions as an endocrine organ that produces hormones and signaling molecules.
But visceral fat is different. Visceral Fat is located deeper inside the abdominal cavity and surrounds internal organs such as the intestines and liver.
Much of it’s located in structures such the omentum and mesentery. We actually need some viseral fat, again another design feature. It provides energy storage and gives mechanical protection for those internal organ.
Now the problem occurs when we accumulate too much of it and visceral fat becomes metabolically dysfunctional. Now remember, it’s like an organ in itself and so it can become dysfunction.
There’s also another category called ectopic fat. This refers to excess fat accumulating in places where large amounts of fat normally should not be stored, including the liver, skeletal muscle, pancreas and around the heart.
This is why I tell my patients that the number on the bathroom scale does not tell the whole story. Two people can weigh exactly the same amount and have completely different metabolic health depending upon how much muscle they have and where they’re storing their body fat.
Visceral fat is concerning because it is metabolically active. When visceral fatty cells become enlarged and dysfunctional, the tissue can become inflamed, immune cells infiltrate the fat, inflammatory signaling molecules increase, and more free fatty acids can be released into circulation.
Because much of the blood draining visceral fat travels through the portal or liver circulation, excessive visceral fat can have a detrimental effect on liver metabolism.
This can contribute to insulin resistance, elevated triglycerides, fatty liver, abnormal blood sugar regulation, and other components of what’s known as metabolic syndrome.
And viscera fat becomes especially relevant as we get older. hormonal changes, insulin resistance, declining muscle mass, decreased physical activity, poor sleep, and excess calorie intake can all encourage visceral fat accumulation.
Now let’s talk about green tea. Green tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. One reason green has received so much scientific attention is because it contains high concentrations of phytonutrients known as catechins.
The best known is EGCG, which stands for Epigallocatechin Gallate. It’s quite a mouthful. But E. G. C. is one of the few green tea catechins which has a lot of research on it.
And the compounds in E G C G can influence energy expenditure, fat oxidation, insulin signaling, inflammation and other metabolic pathways. One of the classic human studies was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999. Researchers placed healthy men inside metabolic chambers where they could precisely measure energy expenditure and fat oxidation over a 24-hour period.
Now the men received green tea extract daily, caffeine by itself or placebo, one of those three categories. The green Tea extract increased 24 hour energy expenditure by approximately 4% and increased fat oxidation or the burning of fat.
Caffeine alone did not reproduce all of these effects. So this suggested that something about the combination of green tea, catechins, and caffeine was influencing metabolism beyond simply just taking caffeine.
But increasing fat burning in a metabolic chamber does not necessarily mean that someone will lose visceral fat. Let’s look at the studies that actually measured visceral fat One most important was published in the journal Obesity in 2007. In this study, researchers studied 240 Japanese men and women with visceral fat-type obesity.
For 12 weeks, the participants consumed green tea, providing either 583 mg of catechins per day or a controlled green-tea group where they only got 96 mg per The participants were instructed to maintain their normal diet and activity.
And of course, remember, green tea intake is very common amongst the Japanese population. Now at the end of the study, decreases in body weight, body fat mass, waist circumference, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat were all significantly greater in the higher catechin group.
Importantly, visceral fat was measured with computerized tomography or CT imaging rather than just estimating it with body weight or waist circumference.
The higher catechin group had a reduction visceral fat area of approximately 10 square centimeters compared with a much smaller reduction in the control group.
That represented roughly a 9% decrease from the starting visceral fat measurement in a high caticin group The researchers also reported improvements in LDL cholesterol and blood pressure in certain participants.
Now, another important analysis was published in Nutrition Research in 2018, and researchers pulled data from six clinical trials involving 921 overweight or obese adults.
The catechin-rich beverages provide approximately 540-588 mg of green tea catedchins per day. After about 12 weeks, total abdominal fat area decreased by an average of approximately 17.7 cm2, while visceral fat decreased about 7.5 cm² in those taking the placebo.
Body weight, BMI, waist circumference, and blood pressure also improved. So how much green tea would you actually have to drink to get these 500 or 600 milligrams of catechins?
Well, this gets a little bit more complicated. A traditionally brewed cup of green-tea made with approximately 2.5 grams of tea leaves and about 8 ounces or 250 milliliters of water has been estimated to contain around 240 to 320 milligrams EGCG generally makes up a substantial portion of these catechins.
Now the USD has reported approximately 235 milligrams of caticin in about six ounces of green tea. So if every cup of Green Tea contained that amount, then two to three cups could potentially provide the amount of Catechin quantity used in some of the studies.
But there is a catch. The Caticon content of commercially available green tea varies tremendously. So you have to try and find out the amount that the tea that you’re purchasing, the number of catechins that it contains.
And some brands will give you that type of information. The amount depends on the variety of tea. How it was processed, how much tea you use, water temperature, brewing time, and water composition.
and other methods that some brands use to even remove caffeine. But in any event, about two cups of green tea generally will give you that amount of 500 to 600 milligrams of catechins that was used in clinical trials.
Now be aware about using supplements with green team green key extracts. They’re not always the same thing. A supplement containing 500 milligrams of green tea extract does not necessarily contain 500 mg of catechins.
It probably doesn’t. And 500mg of Catechin does NOT mean 500 mgs of EGCG. So you have to look at how the extracts have been standardized. Now let’s talk about a 2026 study published in the journal Nutrients looking at adults with visceral obesity.
In this study participants received a beverage containing 400 milligrams of green tea catechins along with 2.3 grams of inulin type of fiber every day for 12 weeks.
The researchers found that visceral fat reduction was not significantly different from placebo. So not every study has found this benefit. However, in this did significantly improve, so there was still benefit metabolically.
And in the long run, that could help with not only liver function, but visceral fat. But when you look at the total research, it suggests that green tea catechins modestly reduce abdominal and visceral fat, especially when consumed consistently over again the 12 weeks or three months time period.
But the effect does not occur in every study. And that’s true of most things that are studied. It’s rare you see positive effects in 100% of studies. So green tea should be viewed as an additional metabolic tool in addition to a great exercise program and a healthy diet.
So how might green tea work with this visceral fat? Well, one mechanism involves thermogenesis, which is the production of heat and expenditure of energy.
A meta-analysis of metabolic studies found that mixtures of green-tea catechins and caffeine do increase 24-hour energy expenditure by about 5%. And it helps to burn fatter, what is known as fat oxidation.
About 16% improved fat-oxidation compared to placebo. So green tea catechins may also influence catocholamine metabolism, which are stress hormones, mitochondria activity, where we make the energy in your cells, improve insulin sensitivity, improved inflammatory signaling, and enzymes involved in fat metabolism.
So for me, studies using CT scans are more impressive than what we see in biochemical studies when we’re looking at green and visceral fat. Now occasionally see reports of liver damage with concentrated green tea extracts.
This is actually pretty rare in terms of using green unless someone’s using really mega doses. This usually occurs with again supplemental forms. They’re not common, but there are some case reports where this does happen.
And so it’s found this tends to be more of a problem when people are taking them in a fasting state. when they’re fasting or they are not taking the supplements with food.
So, the enhanced absorption and blood concentration with high levels and empty stomach may, for some people, cause some liver irritation. To be cautious, if you’re going to be taking a supplement for high doses, of course, check with your doctor, your natural healthcare practitioner, but do take them with the food if they go down that route.
Now remember, green tea also contains caffeine, not as much as coffee, but we do find some patients are still sensitive to the amount of caffeine in green or might throw off their sleep, their anxiety, give them heart palpitations.
Again, I don’t commonly see it, for people who are super sensitive, it is a possibility. So of course, if you want to reduce visceral fat, don’t depend on one beverage or supplement, although green tea would be my top choice.
Make sure you’re building muscle through resistance training with regular physical activity throughout the day. Reduce your simple carbohydrate and sugar intake.
Eat adequate protein. Consume high fiber vegetables. Whole foods, of course, is very important. And get adequate sleep. If you’re not sleeping well, that’s going to cause problems with your metabolism.
Again, so many American adults and actually, unfortunately, kids at this point have insulin resistance. So you cannot afford to have these simple carbs, have the excess alcohol to not exercise.
This is all foundational to improving that visceral fat. But again, incorporating green tea is an excellent tool to help enhance the metabolic effects of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
And that’s the approach I like with integrative medicine. It’s usually not one magic pill per se, one magical food. Even though you see videos on YouTube all the time with people making these proclamations, it’s a combination of the healthy, diet, and life style and using very targeted foods and supplements to get the best effects.
So again, green tea can give a modest effect in reducing visceral fat. It’s very impressive. And it’s something you should consider if you’re one of the millions of Americans who does have increased visceral fat, you have a fatty liver, and it should be part of your program.
Well, if like this video, hit the like button, make sure you subscribe to the channel. I’m always covering different topics with health and integrative medicine, And I look forward to meeting with you again.
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