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The High Performance Journal - April 29th, 2025

The other day, a client came to us and wanted to improve their fitness levels. When we intake a client, we ask for their weight and inches and to take before photos.

When I saw his photos, something I noticed is, while his body looked skinny, he had less than normal musculature and was carrying an abnormal amount of fat, aka. Dad Bod Vibes:

We asked him to provide us with his blood work results as well, and we found something shocking.

His body was showing signs that he was carrying a high amount of Ectopic Fat.

This is the type of fat you can't see but is literally killing you.

Today, I want to give you a complete guide on ectopic fat as well as how you can test for it and how you can get rid of it off your body.

You ready? Let's go 🔥

Ectopic Fat: The Fat You Can’t See (But Can Kill You)

If regular fat cells and visceral fat become full or dysfunctional, the overflow is directed to your organs, known as "lipotoxicity."

Think of your fat cells like storage lockers: when they're full, the extra fat gets stored all over the body, accumulating in your living room, kitchen, and bedroom. This makes a mess everywhere where you don't want it*

This is Ectopic Fat. It is the overflow of fat clogging up your vital organs.

This type of fat. can lead to nasty things like heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, as well as a host of preventable diseases.

It’s the rogue type of fat, invading places it was never meant to be:

• Liver (causing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, aka NAFLD)
• Pancreas (wrecking your ability to control blood sugar)
• Heart (increasing your risk of heart failure)
• Muscles (making you insulin resistant and sapping your performance)
• Even your Kidneys and Arteries can get fatty infiltration.

A big reason why no one knows about this is that ectopic fat can't necessarily be seen, especially if someone looks like they're at a normal weight.

Dan Note: This effect of fat gain and the analogy of it is amplified if you have little kids 😁

How Do People Get Ectopic Fat?

Image Courtesy of ​Research Gate​ 

1. Food: Eating more calories than you burn, especially if these calories are sugary and fatty foods.
   
   
2. Lack Of Movement: Sedentary lifestyle and not moving your body.
   
   
3. Genetics: Having parents or family members with diabetes or liver problems, or being from certain cultures, can create a starting point of being more susceptible to gaining ectopic fat.
   
   
4. Age: Your body's ability to store fat decreases as you age. The use of certain medications can increase your risk of developing.
   
   
5. Medications: Certain medical conditions, such as hormone imbalances or certain medications, can increase your risk of gaining ectopic fat.
   
   
6. Poor Gut health: This increases inflammation and insulin resistance, making it easier for fat to accumulate in organs such as the liver and pancreas.

What makes a person gain high levels of ectopic fat is never down to one thing; it's usually a variety of factors.

Our client had been drinking regularly. And even though he wasn't obese by any standards, his diet said otherwise.

How Can You Tell If You Have Ectopic Fat?

Image Courtesy of ​Frontiers​  

1. Bloodwork Red Flags:
   - High fasting insulin or blood sugar
   - High triglycerides
   - Low HDL
   - Elevated liver enzymes (ALT/AST)
   - Fatty liver on ultrasound or high “Fibroscan” score
   
   
2. Waist Circumference: Even if your BMI is normal, a waist >40” (men) or >35” (women) is a big red flag [Janssen et al., 2004].
   
   
3. Energy And Performance: Low energy, poor recovery, stubborn fat loss = suspect ectopic fat.
   
   
4. Gold Standard: Imaging, such as MRI, DEXA, or ultrasound, can reveal fatty infiltration (but most people don’t need this unless high risk).
   
   
5. The Mirror Test: If you have a skinny-fat physique or have been carrying excess weight and unhealthy body fat levels for more than 1-2 years, it's an indication that you may have higher-than-healthy levels of ectopic fat.

When we looked at our client's blood work, we saw he had the 5 red flags of someone who had high levels of ectopic fat.

As mentioned before, we also used the mirror test to determine whether we should test for these things first.

5 Effective Ways To Eliminate Ectopic Fat

Through a combination of the pillars below, as well as some of the cutting-edge tools I'll share in a second, we were able to help our client lose 30 pounds of fat and get his blood work to healthy levels:

1. Fix Metabolism And Get Lean: Losing body fat is the number one way to lose ectopic fat. Even a little weight loss, anywhere between 5% to 10% of your body weight, can make a huge difference in the reduction of organ fat.
   
   
2. The Two W's: Weights and walking are the perfect combination to eliminate ectopic fat and maintain long-term results. Doing light forms of movement like walking or swimming burns off the fat in your liver and around your organs.
   
   Lifting weights helps your body use more energy and burn more fat, and also helps you keep your muscles, which maintains your metabolism.
   
   
3. Cut Out The Junk: Foods containing sugar, flour, and fat make it easier for the body to store fat in its organs. We need to stick to single-ingredient, nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables, lean meats, nuts, and whole grains.
   
   
4. Improve The Quality And Quantity Of Your Sleep: Poor sleep increases your body's hunger hormones and stress, which can lead to the storage of more fat in your organs.
   
   
5. Minimize Or Eliminate Alcohol: Alcohol is harsh on your liver, it increases appetite, it increases stress, and can also make fatty liver disease much worse. 
   
   

Cutting Edge Ways to Target Ectopic Fat

Image courtesy of ​Cell Metabolism​  

1. Time-Restricted Eating: Eating your foods in an 8-10 hour window and not eating late at night helps your body burn stored fat, especially in your liver. It also lowers insulin, which helps get rid of organ fat.
   
   
2. The Green Mediterranean Diet: This diet, which is rich in leafy greens, nuts, olive oil, and plant proteins, has been shown to reduce liver and visceral fat more than a regular Mediterranean diet. This can help clear ectopic fat and improve metabolic health.
   
   I did ​an article on this diet​, but you may want to add the high-quality olive oil to it.
   
   
3. Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Eating more fatty fish or taking in high-quality fish oils can help your liver burn more fat and lower inflammation. Aim for about 2 to 5 grams per day.
   
   
4. Probiotics And Fiber: Good bacteria from probiotics or fermented foods, and also eating a lot of fiber from fruits and veggies, can help reduce liver fat by fighting inflammation.
   
   
5. Coffee: Drinking two to three cups of black coffee a day has been linked to a healthier liver and less organ fat.
   
   
6. Sauna Or Heat Therapy: This can help improve insulin sensitivity, and the heat shock proteins induced by high heat have been shown to reduce stress in the fat cells.
   
   
7. Sprinting: Forms of high-intensity interval training, such as sprinting, have been shown to have a net positive effect at removing visceral fat, which in turn will help reduce the spillover of ectopic fat into your organs.
   
   I did an article on how to sprint, you can ​check it​ out over here​.
   
   
8. Supplementation: Vitamin E may help with fatty liver. Berberine helps with blood sugar and may lower liver fat. Carnitine and choline can also help your liver process fat, especially if you're low on these nutrients.

Ectopic Fat Is The Real Silent Killer... And You CAN Beat It

While most people obsess about the fat they see in the mirror, the smart ones are on a mission to fix the fat they can't see.

Ectopic fat is the canary in the coal mine for your metabolism. This shows up years before the diabetes, heart attack, or liver disease.

The sooner you take action, the sooner your body and brain will thank you.

Onward and upward. 🚀

- Dan

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help:

1. The Lean Body 90 System: When you’re ready to get in great shape, Lean Body 90 is the obvious choice. You can get in great shape and reach your fitness goals in just 90 minutes a week. Lose weight and build muscle even without hours in the gym or highly restrictive diets. Join 1000+ students here.

2. Are you an entrepreneur who wants to get lean, boost energy, and get in your best shape? Apply for private one-on-one coaching here.

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References

1. Janssen, J. (2024). The Causal Role of Ectopic Fat Deposition in Metabolic Syndrome. Int J Mol Sci, 25(24), 13238 ​mdpi.com​​​mdpi.com​.
2. Patel, P. et al. (2023). Exercise and Dietary Interventions on Ectopic Fat: A Systematic Review. Nutrients, 15(8): 1800 ​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​​​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​.
3. American Liver Foundation. (2023). NAFLD and NASH – Treatment and Weight Loss​​liverfoundation.org​.
4. Volpe, S. et al. (2022). Once-weekly Semaglutide in Type 2 Diabetes with Fatty Liver: 52-week study. Nutrients, 14(21): 4673 ​aidsmap.com​.
5. Liao, C. et al. (2023). GLP-1 Agonists Reduce Visceral and Hepatic Fat: Meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 18(8): e0289616 ​journals.plos.org​​​journals.plos.org​.
6. Iacobellis, G. et al. (2008). Threshold Values for High-Risk Epicardial Fat Thickness. Obesity (Silver Spring), 16(4): 887-92 ​pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​​​pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​.
7. Taylor, R. (2015). Type 2 Diabetes Reversal and Pancreatic Fat. Diabetes Care, 38(4): e38-e39 ​ncl.ac.uk​​​ncl.ac.uk​.
8. Lim, S. et al. (2012). Loss of Pancreatic Fat and Diabetes Reversal. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 96(8): E1212-E1216 ​healio.com​ 
9. Le, T. et al. (2017). Imaging of NAFLD – Ultrasound, CT, MR. Indian J Endocrinol Metab, 21(6): 990-997 ​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​​​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​.
10. Parikh, N. et al. (2016). Biomarkers of Ectopic Fat Deposition: Serum Lipidomics. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 101(1): 272–281 ​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​​​pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov​.

Disclaimer: This email is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.