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The High Performance Journal - August 26th, 2025

At the start of the year, I had a client who had exceptionally high levels of visceral fat on his body.

He was someone who wanted to lose weight in a flexible way while still incorporating alcohol and his favorite foods.

I warned him,

"If you want this type of fat to be removed, your nutrition habits need to change. It's not all about calories in, calories out."

He thanked me for my advice but decided to go ahead anyways.

Fast forward 9 weeks. He dropped 11 lbs, but when we got his DEXA scan back, he got pissed because his visceral fat numbers were still the same.

Thankfully, this was a wake-up call. When he applied a few changes to his diet, he ended up dropping 75% of visceral fat (and 36 lbs) from his body in the next 12 weeks:

The diet I'm referring to is called an Optimized Mediterranean Diet, and researchers are showing that it's up to 2x more effective than a traditional weight loss diet.

In this newsletter, I'm going to go into what it is, why it works, and how to apply it to your life.

You ready? Let's go 🔥

The World’s Easiest Diet to Eliminate Visceral Fat (DO THIS)

Why Is Visceral Fat (VAT) So Dangerous?

The biggest reason ​visceral fat is dangerous​ is that it's wrapped around your organs.

Visceral fat is metabolically active and releases inflammatory substances called cytokines into your bloodstream.

These cytokines contribute to low-grade inflammation, which is a key driver for a number of metabolic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and certain types of cancer.

Also, if you have too much visceral fat, it can literally make you dumber. It reduces the amount of blood flow to the brain, which causes shrinkage in regions of the brain known for being responsible for memory and emotional regulation.

Now, as mentioned in the intro, the unique thing about this fat is that you can lose weight and still have the same amount of visceral fat.

If we want to eliminate this fat from our bodies, we need to focus on the quality as much as the quantity of food going in.

Enter the Green Mediterranean Diet.

The Eye-Opening Visceral Fat Study

Image courtesy of ​BMC Medicine​ 

Researchers ran a study where they compared 3 types of diets to see which one really shrinks visceral fat.:

Diet #1 - A Healthy Guideline Diet (Red), which was lean protein, veggies, and fruits.

They lost zero weight, but visceral fat dropped by 4.2%.

Diet #2 - The Standard Mediterranean Diet (Blue), which is the classic olive oil, fish, and nuts.

They lost 2.7% of body weight and 6% of visceral fat.

Diet #3 - The Green Mediterranean Diet (Green), which was loaded with polyphenol-rich foods like berries, blueberries, raspberries, pomegranates, and green tea.

They lost 3.9% of body weight, but visceral fat dropped by a whopping 14%, which was shown to be over 2-3x more effective than the other diets!

Your Body Loves Polyphenols. Visceral Fat Hates Them.

Photo courtesy of ​Frontiers​ 

Polyphenols are natural plant chemicals with antioxidant effects. They’re found in foods like berries, green tea, nuts, dark chocolate, olives, and many fruits, veggies, herbs, and spices.

When consumed in this study, they triggered the production of Hippuric acid and Urolithin A. These compounds encourage good gut health and reduce inflammation.

The Changes We Made To Our Client's Diet To Drop 75% Of His Visceral Fat

Step 1 – Set up the right environment

First thing we removed was alcohol.

My client drank 1–2 glasses nightly and more on weekends. Alcohol raises inflammation, ruins gut health, spikes appetite, and gets metabolized before any other foods.

This makes alcohol perfect fuel for visceral fat. Eliminating it was non-negotiable.

Step 2 – Clean up the diet

We cut out hyper-processed foods, sugars, and packaged snacks. These disrupt gut health, drive inflammation, and accelerate visceral fat storage.

Step 3 – Add the right food and drink

• Protein: 0.8 g per pound of body weight from lean chicken and fish.
• Snacks: 2 cups of dark berries between lunch and dinner to kill cravings.
• Drinks: Reduced coffee from 3 to 1 cup, swapped the rest for green tea, which is rich in catechins and, when combined with caffeine, can boost fat oxidation.
• Gut health: Added bone broth, fermented foods, and chia seeds. Ferments feed good bacteria, chia feeds them, and greens like kale and spinach supply polyphenols, which all improve your gut and reduce inflammation.

Step 4 – Eat at the right times

We set eating windows: no food after 7 PM (4 hours before bed), and breakfast within 1–2 hours of waking. Lunch was light.

This circadian alignment was crucial to helping him drop 36 lbs and lose 75% of his visceral fat without battling hunger.

I talked about finding the best eating schedule in this ​article here​.

Step 5 – Set the right timeframe

The last ingredient is time. With 90 days of focused effort, most people can move from unhealthy to healthy visceral fat levels.

The Result?

36 pounds of weight loss gone and 75% of his visceral fat eliminated.

He went from being obese to being metabolically healthy, and this has had a tremendous impact on every facet of his life.

Do not sleep on the changes that can be made in every area of your life when you get your body in shape.

The Final Word

The big lesson is that burning visceral fat is about food quality as much as quantity.

The best part? When you add the right foods and cut the wrong ones, you may not even need to count calories.

The coolest thing was my client felt so full on this diet he couldn’t even finish his plate, which makes fat loss effortless.

So instead of obsessing over calories, focus on feeding your gut the right foods and watch your visceral fat and belly disappear.

Onward and upward. 🚀

- Dan

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References

1. Zelicha, H., Kloting, N., Kaplan, A. et al. The effect of high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet on visceral adiposity: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial. BMC Med 20, 327 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02525-8 
2. The effect of a high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet (Green-MED) combined with physical activity on age-related brain atrophy: the Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial Polyphenols Unprocessed Study (DIRECT PLUS)Kaplan, Alon et al.The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 115, Issue 5, 1270 - 1281
   
   

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.