how to get rid of belly fat through a regular healthy diet
how to get rid of belly fat through a regular healthy diet Bru-nO - Pixabay

One of the causes of visceral fat build-up is poor diet. The accumulation of this body fat within the abdominal cavity is considered dangerous as there is the risk of developing serious health conditions. To prevent this from happening, there is a need to make some changes to the diet.

Among the many diet plans available today, one that is seen to be the best in reducing visceral fat is a low-carb diet. The ketogenic or keto-diet, in particular, has been proven to be very effective in getting rid of visceral fat.

What is a Keto Diet?

The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb diet with sufficient protein used by doctors as a treatment to manage epilepsy in children. The main feature of this diet is that it makes the body burn fats instead of carbohydrates.

Similar to the Atkins diet, where the objective is to minimize carbohydrates intake, the keto diet does the same by cutting back on easy to digest carbs. This means sugary foods, soda, pastries, and white bread are out, which will then be replaced by fat.

How Does It Work?

With fewer carbs, the body goes into a metabolic state referred to as ketosis. Eating less than 50g of carbs per day can cause the body to run out of fuel that it can quickly use. Usually taking three to four days, the body then will start breaking down protein and fat to use as fuel, causing weight loss.

Research conducted with 28 obese and overweight adult volunteers found that those who observed a keto-diet lost more fat compared to those who followed a low-fat diet. More interestingly, those following a ketogenic diet were able to drastically reduce, in some cases, remove visceral fat from their bodies.

The study also proved that low-carb diets like keto-diet are very effective in weight loss programs and, more importantly, holds the key to removing the dangerous visceral fat. This is because low-carb diets act quickly to remove the body’s excess water, thus reducing insulin levels and at the same time, causing rapid weight loss.

In other studies that seek to compare low-fat with low-carb diets, researchers found that those who limit their carb intake lost more weight without going hungry. Researchers also revealed that the efficacy of low-carb diets could last up to six months compared to other weight loss diet plans.