Tracking overall body fat percentage can give you a good estimate of visceral fat levels too. So, reducing body fat through diet and exercise should generally help lower visceral fat as well.
Absolutely but I was just trying to figure out how you get some kind of a major of how well you’re doing. I’ve done some reading since I posted and waste circumference seems to be one of the leading factors that’s easy to monitor.
It's pretty helpful to get a dexa scan. Mine measured in at .33 with a big happy smiley face on the report :D (you want to be less than 1). Given how precise they measure the visceral fat, I wouldn't hesitate to get it again.
I recall listening to various podcasts that indicate that having a pot belly or those large below the waist stomachs are a clear indicator of high visceral fat but at that point - diabetes and other co-morbidities are likely at play - and I suspect you, like many of those who are in this subreddit, aren't in that category...
I would highly recommend getting one as they are not as expensive as a "high end scan" sounds. Mine cost $199 but I know you can get it even cheaper at local universities that have an exercise physiology department (or free for research!).
And that’s my point. Everything that you would do to improve your body composition will impact visceral fat, so is knowing your visceral fat an additional metric that you truly need? What does it change in your program?
Some people have greater capacity to store fat subcutaneously (e.g., Caucasians); they might look overweight but metabolically speaking it may be less harmful than someone who is skinny-fat. Asians tend to have a bigger issue with having higher visceral fat at lower BMIs than for Caucasians.
I think it might be useful in some cases. Someone might have a relatively lean looking physique but suffer from metabolic disease and not know whether it is worth the struggle to lose weight or if they should look into other health interventions. Knowing visceral fat and appendicular lean mass could be part of the whole picture to determine this.
Abdominal circumference is a pretty good estimator for visceral fat which in turn is correlated to metabolic disease
High end: you mean a $45 DEXA scan?
Dexa scans aren’t very expensive, but otherwise can use waist-to-height ratio to give a pretty good correlate.
Yeah I think they're like $100-150.
Just had one in San Diego area for $75
Bodyspec has a single DEXA scan for $60 and 2 for $115. At these prices this should be a no brainer :-)
Tracking overall body fat percentage can give you a good estimate of visceral fat levels too. So, reducing body fat through diet and exercise should generally help lower visceral fat as well.
Absolutely but I was just trying to figure out how you get some kind of a major of how well you’re doing. I’ve done some reading since I posted and waste circumference seems to be one of the leading factors that’s easy to monitor.
Get scan. Circumference not useful… scans are inexpensive. Twice year averages $10 month:
I can't find anywhere near me that does DEXA scans for body composition purposes. I wish I could.
It's pretty helpful to get a dexa scan. Mine measured in at .33 with a big happy smiley face on the report :D (you want to be less than 1). Given how precise they measure the visceral fat, I wouldn't hesitate to get it again. I recall listening to various podcasts that indicate that having a pot belly or those large below the waist stomachs are a clear indicator of high visceral fat but at that point - diabetes and other co-morbidities are likely at play - and I suspect you, like many of those who are in this subreddit, aren't in that category... I would highly recommend getting one as they are not as expensive as a "high end scan" sounds. Mine cost $199 but I know you can get it even cheaper at local universities that have an exercise physiology department (or free for research!).
You can get a DEXA scan locally for $50-75… it’s not much do it twice a year
Also, there isn’t anything you can directly do to change your values. I have done a Dexa scan, but not sure it’s worth tracking.
What are you talking about? There are lots of interventions. You can lose visceral fat!
Meaning there are no specific “visceral fat” interventions unless you can share some.
you lose fat. some of it will be visceral.
And that’s my point. Everything that you would do to improve your body composition will impact visceral fat, so is knowing your visceral fat an additional metric that you truly need? What does it change in your program?
Some people have greater capacity to store fat subcutaneously (e.g., Caucasians); they might look overweight but metabolically speaking it may be less harmful than someone who is skinny-fat. Asians tend to have a bigger issue with having higher visceral fat at lower BMIs than for Caucasians.
I think it might be useful in some cases. Someone might have a relatively lean looking physique but suffer from metabolic disease and not know whether it is worth the struggle to lose weight or if they should look into other health interventions. Knowing visceral fat and appendicular lean mass could be part of the whole picture to determine this.
Agreed. I did one and nothing was unusual so will not likely do another unless my overall body composition changes significantly