Abdominal fat is nothing more than an accumulation of fat cells around the abdominal organs. In fact, this increase in fat increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disorders. If you have abdominal fat, it is not always considered visceral fat. It may simply be subcutaneous fat stored under the skin. Subcutaneous fat, which can also be found in other parts of your body, is more visible. Visceral fat is hidden inside the abdominal cavity and is difficult to detect. Intermittent fasting seems to be a tool of choice for slimming down the waistline, let’s take a look at its mechanism of action.
Overeating or intermittent fasting?
While many diets focus on what you should or should not eat, intermittent fasting focuses on when you should eat.
When you practice this form of fasting, you only eat at a specific time. In short, not eating anything for a certain number of hours each day can help the body to burn off its own fat. In addition, studies prove that intermittent fasting is beneficialto your health.
Neuroscientist Mark Mattson has been studying it for 25 years now. According to him, our organism has undergone transformations in order to be able to go without food for several hours. In prehistoric times, even before humans knew how to farm, they were able to survive without food for long periods.
Nowadays, television, smartphones and the web in general are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, we stay active for longer hours to watch our favourite series or to share on social networks. We sit and snack all day and most of the night.
Indeed, this excess of calories and lack of physical activity can contribute to obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Fortunately, studies show that intermittent fasting is able to counteract this phenomenon.
How does fasting work?
Intermittent fasting can be practised in a number of different ways, but they are all based onalternating periods of eating and fasting. For example, you can try to eat only for a period of eight hours a day and fast the rest of the time.
In fact, after several hours without eating, the body depletes its sugar reserves and starts to burn fat. This is known as metabolic switching: A phenomenon that refers to the preferential shift from using glucose as a fuel source to using fatty acids and ketone bodies (substances produced when fat is broken down). Your ability to switch between these two metabolic states is an indicator of your metabolic flexibility.
Does fasting lead to a flatter stomach?
Intermittent fasting has a proven track record, especially in helping people lose weight.
In short, leptin (satiety hormone) is involved in weight management. In particular, it regulates food intake and energy expenditure by altering the signals sent to the hypothalamus and other areas of the brain. Leptin resistance occurs when the brain no longer perceives the signals sent by leptin. As a result, the person with leptin resistance is continuously hungry. Intermittent fasting helps to lower the level of inflammation responsible for leptin resistance, thus supporting weight loss.
If you want to lose belly fat, we advise you to adopt a more balanced diet while fasting. In addition, a study from 2022 states that this practice helps to lose visceral fat. Therefore, incorporating intermittent fasting into your daily routine can help you lose belly fat.
Sources :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8839325/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25540982/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26135345
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6471315/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8839325/
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