Does fat reduction happen everywhere at the same rate?

science
(Tanogae) #1

Hi,
Would anyone know whether, while keto dieting and/or fasting, the reduction of body fat happens evenly in all fat locations (subcutaneous, visceral, liver, bone marrow adipose tissue) or do one or more locations take precedence over the others?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Visceral fat is used up first, especially liver fat. A fatty liver can be cleared in as short a time as ten days.

As for the sub-cutaneous fat, which is your adipose tissue, that tends to go away in reverse order of when it appeared. For example, my face and legs had started to get fat not long before I started a ketogenic diet, and they were the first locations to get thin again.

I have no idea about how fat might get deposited in bone marrow, so I can’t help you there.

(Robin) #3

Most folks will tell you their belly fat is the last to go. And that’s about as scientific as my answers get.

(Tanogae) #4

That’s exactly the info I was looking for and the answer, the one I was hoping for. I know I have a fatty liver and want it to heal itself fully and be in prime operating condition asap. If I have to wait for my waist to totally melt, I can live with that (it’s already gone down by ~30%). Thanks very much Paul.
Best regards,
Tano

(Allie) #5

Nope.
It tends to come off in the opposite way to how it went on, so last in, first out.

(Bob M) #6

I have a theory that at least some face fat is because of inflammation caused by things like wheat. So when you go keto, you lose that inflammation and therefore the face fat.

Unfortunately, I (1) can’t test this and (2) don’t know why face fat shows up later for some folks.

But if you ever watch Chris Hayes, as one example, he’s relatively thin but has a fatter face. I think the fatter face is from eating wheat. I’d put money on if he went keto, he’d lose a few pounds just from his face. And his fingers.

(Bob M) #7

I’ll be keto 10 years as of 1/1/24, and I still have belly fat. Have very little fat elsewhere, say on my legs, but the belly fat is remarkably resistant to going away. Went from size 43 pants to 34 pants, but belly fat is still there.

#8

Interesting idea, who knows? (Maybe one who has some idea about the possible relationship between fat and imflammation?) Surely not me. I just know that many people easily lose their fat face without keto just through losing fat (I did, way before keto. I only have a round face is I am at my fattiest, I didn’t have it as a chubby kid) and genetics play a big role, some people need to go to a quite low body fat percentage to lose their face fat. But maybe it would go easier with keto…? It would be nice if someone with that problem would do their next cutting with keto! More like multiple people, a bigger N is better…

Belly fat is the last to go for many of us. Some people (like my SO) always have a little fatty belly if they have some extra fat, it just doesn’t distribute more evenly :frowning: But most of us probably knows a lot about uneven fat distribution. I surely do :frowning: Once I was 62kg with a very fatty belly (my biased viewpoint made it worse, I saw no change compared to 20 kg heavier. fortunately there are measurements and clothes so I knew it changed but it was still very, very far from being okay. and I never would want a concave belly or a skinny body).

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

You may very well be right, but you’re also right about the difficulty of testing that hypothesis.

(Tanogae) #10

Hi Bob,
Wow, ten years on keto and still the bulge? Do you mind me asking how many meals a day are eaten? Is regular fasting part of your routine? Are there any extenuating circumstances. Hearing your story causes me to wonder if, no matter what I do or how long I work at it, I’ll be able to banish my middle age spread, which I very much want. FYI, I started keto 18 days ago.
Thanks

#11

It comes off wherever it wants, we’re all different that way. But for most, it comes off in reverse order that it went on. Of course minus the spots you hate the most!

I’ve brought myself from BF% in the 30’s, last DEXA has me in the 10’s, you almost can’t pinch fat anywhere on me…EXCEPT my sides and low back, and a little bit in the face, small amount in the gut, you know, where it sucks the most. But as long as you keep chipping away you’ll eventually get it all.

(Tanogae) #12

Hi Ifod,
Thanks for your comments. Taking your observations I conclude that what goes on and where, is random and what come off and where, happens in direct reverse order. I get the idea but the random part buggs me. I want to know what the random factors are. Is it genetic? Environmental? Turning to medical science and research literature is probably the only way to find out. There’s got to be a study on this subject somewhere. Things may appear random but there’s always a cause for every effect.

(KCKO, KCFO) #13

This was pretty much what happened with my body.

(Robin) #14

And the cause and effect will vary person to person. Just go for it and learn along the way.

(Tanogae) #15

I did some googling and the majority of entries say the visceral goes on first and comes off first.The subcutaneous always goes on last and comes off last. Course just because it say so on Google don’t mean it’s true but when a number of entries agree on something then the claim carriers more weight. Who’s saying it matters too.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

Listen to the experiences of people.

Visceral fat (inside organs where it is not supposed to be) comes off first, and that is essential for metabolic health, since visceral fat causes insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia. The resulting increase in metabolic health aids in the reduction of subcutaneous fat (inside fat cells where it is supposed to go), once the body feels safe parting with some of its reserve against famine.

In a healthy human being, fat is always enterning the fat tissues, triggering a sense of satiety when enough has accumulated. When we stop eating (because we now have enough stored energy), then the fat starts being released again, to fuel the body between meals. This is an ongoing cycle of storing and releaseing fat. The overnight fast, between the last meal of one day and the first meal of the next, is an important part of metabolic health. When we eat the right foods (i.e., avoiding sugar, starches, and grains), this all happens naturally, without our having to do anything about it.

#17

This has to be specific to each person’s metabolism, but for me:
When I started, I initially noticed that my belly - but I think that’s visceral fat- and chest decreased first. Then I lost weight in my extremities: legs, hands, neck, arms. Then my back and now it’s my belly again which must be the subcutaneous fat that’s really begun diminishing.
It’s been quite a slow and irregular process for me. Personally I feel I’ve hit a normal weight with a BMI in the mid 23’s - but I’m still losing bits of weight here and there.

(Alec) #18

2 years carnivore, and lost 80lbs… still have a belly. But I now trust what my body wants to do. It takes energy from where it wants to because it is a machine that has been finely tuned over millions of years of evolution… and it works as long as you feed it an evolution appropriate diet.