Even if you regularly slaughter gym workouts, this will not prevent excess visceral fat from damaging your heart.
Visceral fat — the kind of “hidden” fat that wraps itself around your organs — may actually speed up the aging of your heart.
We all know aging is the biggest risk factor for heart disease, but why some people’s hearts seem to “age” faster than others hasn’t been totally clear.
Researchers from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Sciences in London think visceral or “internal” fat could be one of the missing puzzle pieces.
This deep belly fat has long been tied to health problems like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, but now, scientists have shown it’s also linked to faster aging of the heart and blood vessels.
Fat Distribution Matters
One of the most interesting parts of this research is that it doesn’t just lump all body fat together.
The scientists discovered that fat distribution plays a huge role.
Fat around the hips and thighs — what’s often referred to as a “pear-shaped” body — actually appears to have protective benefits, at least for women, when it comes to heart aging.
Apple shaped bodies, however, fare worse, especially in men.
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Keep in mind that a person can have significant excess fat in their lower body and hip area, and also have dangerous amounts of visceral fat. This is much more common in women than in men.
How the Study Was Done
The study, published in the European Heart Journal (2025), used data from more than 21,000 participants in the UK Biobank, which is an enormous research resource with tons of imaging data on participants.
These images not only map where fat is stored in the body, but also provide detailed pictures of the heart and blood vessels.
Researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze these images, essentially assigning each person a “heart age” that could then be compared to their actual age.
The Invisible Enemy
If your heart is aging faster than your birthday candles suggest, that’s pretty bad news.
Visceral fat turned out to be a clear culprit. This fat, which you can’t see in the mirror, sits deep inside your abdomen, hugging organs like your stomach, liver and intestines.
When it’s said that it can’t be viewed in a mirror or when looking down at your midsection, this simply means that you can’t see inside your body.
What you can see, however, is suggestive of large amounts of this harmful internal fat.
In other words, to be blunt, if you’re visibly fat and especially apple shaped, your heart’s on course for faster aging.
On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that if you’re not “fat” in the middle, that you can’t possibly have dangerous amounts of visceral fat. You actually can.
You can have plenty of it even if you look “normal weight” and your BMI says you’re “healthy.”
Blood tests from the study also showed that visceral fat is linked with higher levels of inflammation in the body — a known driver of aging and disease.
Hormones also seem to play a role. Researchers found that higher estrogen levels in premenopausal women might help protect against heart aging, which could partly explain why women often have a lower risk of heart disease before menopause.
Professor Declan O’Regan, who led the study, explains that while we’ve known about “apple vs. pear” body shapes for a long time, this study reveals more about how those fat patterns actually impact heart health.
He also points out that BMI, which simply measures weight compared to height, isn’t always a reliable way to assess heart risk.
Certainly, if a BMI is high enough, there’s a presumed danger to the heart, because the belly of someone this significantly overweight won’t escape pronounced amounts of visceral fat.
It’s pretty safe to assume that if someone’s body mass index is extremely high, their heart is under unsafe stress.
While BMI isn’t a perfect measure of health at lower values, a very high number means an enormous level of excess body fat.
In other words, a woman who’s 5’7 and 400 pounds isn’t going to be 250 pounds of muscle.
With that much fat on the body, it’s impossible to avoid carrying a significant amount of visceral fat – even though two, 400 pound women of the same height and age may have a markedly different fat distribution.
Even if someone appears strong or carries their weight relatively well, an extremely high BMI usually signals more than just extra weight under the skin — it points to deeper, internal fat.
For lesser obese individuals, fat distribution is more relevant, since moderate obesity can still exist without shocking amounts of fat hugging the organs.
What about exercise?
The paper also emphasizes that exercise doesn’t prevent high levels of internal fat.
If you work out like a warrior but, due to overeating are clinically obese, you can still have a threatening amount of deep fat.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages and abilities for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.
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