Today we return to T-Nation that has been spewing out a lot of advertisement articles for their useless and toxic supplements as of late. Among the latest articles, as of today, we have Chris Shugart, you know, the guy who is totally clueless about biology, physiology and especially biochemistry, taking on the causes and alleged remedies for pot bellies in men. Let’s see how much of a mess he made this time.
“Visceral fat storage makes men look pregnant. Oh, and it’ll probably kill them. Emerging research shows there’s a new way to fight it off.”
While protruding bellies make you look like anything but a man, it will not kill you. What will kill you might however be one or several of the reasons behind that growing pot belly. It’s very important to make that distinction, so you know what to correct and avoid.
“Men can get pregnant. It’s true. No, not with an actual baby. That’s Gen Z silliness. But they can grow new, metabolically active tissue inside their abdominal cavities, making them look very much like a woman shopping for a Diaper Genie.”
F**k, Chris, you almost had me gasping for air there for a short while. And although you mentioned the Gen Z silliness, as in complete mental illness, pregnancy has nothing to do with “metabolically active tissue” in the abdominal cavities. Pregnancy is the development of a new life, a separate biological being, a big difference, you buffoon.
“Maybe you’ve seen these guys around gyms and golf courses. They’re usually middle-aged and often have cranky personalities. They’re not “fat” in the traditional sense. They may have skinny legs and no butts. They’re not squishy but have hard, round, protruding bellies.
What’s going on with these bloated man-apples? Well, they’re knocked up with visceral fat. It not only looks bad, but it’s probably going to contribute to their early demise. And yes, it even affects their moods.”
Yes, as visceral fat is located behind the abdominal wall, the abdominal muscles, it pushes the muscles forward, giving that pot belly look. And no, the pot belly itself, the visceral fat does not affect their moods. Our body only adapts to its circumstances and will do anything to survive, and those circumstances are what you expose the body to, as in diet and toxins. So with that being said, it is what they are doing to their bodies that might affect their moods, as in toxic exposure and fluctuating blood glucose. Again, a big difference. You have to be precise in your wording Chris, otherwise people won’t learn a damn thing.
The Worst Kind of Fat
“Quick reminder: Visceral fat is the fat that accumulates within the abdominal cavity and surrounds vital organs. It’s “inside fat.” The opposite is subcutaneous fat – pinchable, “outside fat” beneath the skin.”
Yeah, I mentioned that already. And body fat, depending on its location, can not really be labeled as bad or worse, as it’s simply stored energy and toxins. Also, it is essential as it produces some signaling molecules that are crucial for detoxification and tissue repair. What is bad is what is causing the excess accumulation of fat, as in overconsuming carbohydrates, seed/vegetable oils (as in the toxic polyunsaturated and monounsaturated plant-based fats,) and of course, toxins from plant-based crap such as antinutrients, defense chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides.


“Visceral fat is alive – it’s metabolically active, and not in a fun way. It’s associated with deadly systemic inflammation and hormonal imbalances. It’s even associated with depression and cognitive decline, which partially explains the “cranky older dude with a potbelly” phenomenon.
Name something that wrecks a man’s health and visceral fat probably contributes to it: cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. Visceral fat secretes pro-inflammatory molecules (cytokines like TNF-alpha and IL-6), exacerbating inflammation and increasing cancer risks.”
No, it’s not alive, it does not have a “mind of its own,” nor it is “metabolically active” in the sense that it regulates itself and controls other processes. That is a common misunderstanding among people who do not understand simple physiology. It’s simply referred to as “metabolically active” because of its relationship with the organs and their need for fatty acids and signaling molecules.
Visceral fat is not something that magically appears in some people causing protruding pot bellies. Every single human and animal have visceral fat, as it’s both a protection, and used to supply fatty acids and other chemicals to assist the organs during stress. So, in people with higher levels of toxicity, in those who develop a pot belly and thus have a lot more visceral fat, their organs are also under a lot more stress from their bad diet, from all the carbohydrates, unsaturated fats and toxins — and thus their visceral fat will seem to be more “metabolically active.” The organs take a lot of damage and continuously need to detoxify and repair, which is “inflammation,” as in healing, hence the release of healing-inducing cytokines like TNF-alpha and IL-6. Both of these cytokines are key players in the inflammatory healing response and contribute to tissue repair by modulating cell activity and promoting the production of proteins necessary for healing.
They do not “exacerbate” inflammation. They are a part of the inflammation response as they are needed in the healing process. Again, this is something extremely clueless and low-IQ people often get wrong. Laughable!


To keep it as simple as possible, due to the location of visceral fat, being close to these active and hard-working organs, it is used much more than subcutaneous fat that is located beneath the skin close to muscles that might need it as energy (if the fat bastard with the pot belly ever would stop consuming carbohydrates that flood their bodies with toxic glucose.) And thus, people with limited understanding label visceral fat as metabolically active tissue, when in reality, it’s simply used much more due to the stress on the organs.



In other words, it’s the terrain (as in stress, toxicity and accumulated damage) that determines how “metabolically active” the visceral fat is, and that is governed by the requirements of our organs and not the visceral fat tissue itself.
And thus, it does not contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or any other health problem. That is backwards thinking and simply acknowledging that you do not understand the roles of hormones, signal substances and the basics of physiology. These ailments are simply the result of the same terrain, that of a non-species appropriate diet and toxic load. What is contributing to the accumulation of visceral fat is also causing these other conditions.
Your body never does anything to hurt you. And simply because you have more visceral fat does not mean that the fat tissue produces and releases more signal substances than needed or contributes to a damaging environment. The release of substances is always governed by your body’s needs, and the needs vary depending on the injury that you inflict through your lifestyle and diet. So, no, visceral fat is not dangerous or bad, it simply does what it is supposed to do.
Again, extremely simple, logical, and easy to understand.
And I will explain the mechanics behind visceral fat build-up as we progress through this complete garbage of an article by Chris Shugart.
“Sadly, we can partially blame testosterone, which predisposes men to abdominal fat storage. In an ironic twist, the hormonal imbalances caused by visceral fat eventually reduce T levels.”
No, wrong again. Testosterone simply lowers the ability to store fat in feminine areas that are driven by estrogen, thus increasing the likelihood of fat storage around the abdomen if the other conditions are favorable. We will get to this later in the article.
A New Way to Fight Visceral Fat
“The best way to prevent visceral fat storage is, of course, to not get fat. Follow me on social media for more revolutionary fitness tips. But let’s dig deeper than “exercise more and stop eating crap.”
Chris, no one should follow you on social media as you are completely clueless and cause a lot more harm than good.
And no, you do not necessarily develop a big pot belly by simply getting fat. If that were the case, every single overweight man would have a pot belly, still they do not. And this is actually where hormones come into play.
While body fat is the result of consuming more carbohydrates than you can use up as energy by physical activity in combination with seed/vegetable oils and a high toxic load, men tend to store more fat as visceral fat if the hormone cortisol is elevated.

Remember, cortisol is an energy hormone. It’s crucial for survival as we humans are obligate hyper carnivores and we are only supposed to consume animal fats and animal protein. Cortisol is needed to produce and utilize our own glucose through gluconeogenesis. However, it is also released during a stress response in order to upregulate gluconeogenesis and produce even more glucose so we can fight or flee from a dangerous situation. This is another proof that we are supposed to run on a fat metabolism and only get glucose from our own production, through gluconeogenesis, and not from toxic external sources like carbohydrates in plant-based edibles.

In other words, you really wreak havoc upon your metabolic processes if you consume carbohydrates that turn into glucose and stunts our natural glucose production, and even worse if your body experiences a lot of stress and thus releases extra cortisol when glucose levels are already unnaturally high.

And in other males that tend to get fat all over their bodies, or even worse, get fat accumulation in feminine areas like the chest, hips, and legs; that fat-storing pattern is usually caused by high estrogen levels and low levels of testosterone, as in soy boys. Again, this is hormonal fat distribution and it also goes the other way. If you have high natural testosterone levels, you tend to be protected in these areas when you gain body fat. And as the body fat must go somewhere, it usually goes to the belly, as in visceral fat and belly fat, all while your legs, arms, shoulders, and upper back and chest can be quite lean.


So, to conclude, those developing a pot belly usually have an above average testosterone production and/or low estrogen levels, while experiencing stress that triggers daily increased cortisol production and, of course, all while consuming the wrong kind of foods in excess, likely getting a lot of toxins that really damages the organs.
And remember, stress does not always have to be emotional or from being overwhelmed, overworked, or from having a victim-like mindset, it is also triggered by stimulants such as coffee, tea, caffeine pills, pre-workout powders, energy drinks, and the like, as well as toxic exposure from both food and the environment.

“Emerging research shows that DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) plays a big role in fat metabolism, inflammation, and metabolic health. DHA is the more powerful partner of EPA, the two crucial omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil. Consuming enough DHA helps prevent and reduce visceral fat.”
That’s theoretical speculation based on in vitro and animal studies. And as always, they got most things backwards, as Shugart likely will repeat and spew out like a little well-trained monkey.
“DHA reduces the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and promotes anti-inflammatory pathways, decreasing visceral fat accumulation.”
And there it is, backwards thinking and zero understanding of physiology and biochemistry. The term “pro-inflammatory” simply means “pro-healing,” as in initiating a healing response, because that is what cytokines do!
And yes real animal-based omega-3 fatty acids will help/assist with this inflammation response, as in the healing process, as they are needed for tissue repair — and not by “reducing” cytokines that are also needed for repair and especially the removal of damaged tissue (as we already have established.) How stupid are you guys, really?
Now, if the healing process is accelerated because lacking omega-3 is now available, cytokine production will of course go down as the job is getting done. Tissue is actually healing and no more damaged tissue has to be removed, which would happen over and over again as a cycle if the healing is inhibited as new toxins would cause more damage. So, it is not the omega-3 that is reducing the production of cytokines, it is simply the result of the tissue repair finally being able to be completed.


Of course, there are several other factors that can influence fat storage and that animal fats such as omega-3 can assist with, but that’s beyond the scope of this short article that I have to finish within an hour.
As for the other points in Chris’ article about DHA, I obviously do not have the time to explain each one, and that is not necessary either. The main point is that omega-3’s will assist in healing and thus reducing overall damage to tissues (as in less “inflammation/healing”,) making tissues more effective at using fat as fuel and increasing their detoxification abilities, thus reducing fat storage.
With that being said, adding in some omega-3 while still following a shitty diet will not do much, if anything. You might still be deficient in other nutrients that will hamper the detoxification and healing processes. And even worse, if you get that omega-3 from supplements (which was the point of Shugart’s crappy article,) they’re likely rancid and very toxic — simply adding to the damage. I covered this in my article “The Manufacturing Process of Fish Oil and Why to Avoid it.”
However, all this does not matter if you follow our natural human species-specific and species-appropriate carnivorous diet, as toxicity will be zero while you’ll get all the essential nutrients that you need to heal and function optimally. Also, fat storage will not be an issue on our natural diet. It’s impossible to get overweight while consuming the food we are built to consume, just like there are no overweight carnivorous animals in nature.
And if you have developed a pot belly and happened to come across this article, all you need to do is adopting our natural human diet — and to accelerate fat loss, simply do some fasting, as described in my articles “The World’s Easiest Fat Loss Strategy Is The Carnivore Diet With Scheduled Fasting,” and “Fat Loss Made Simple – Forget About Calories and Cardio.”
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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