High insulin makes your body store fat around your middle, and lowering insulin makes your body burn that fat first.
Scientific Claim
Chronic hyperinsulinemia promotes preferential accumulation of visceral adipose tissue, while insulin reduction triggers selective mobilization of visceral fat over subcutaneous fat.
Original Statement
“Visceral fat is exquisitely sensitive to insulin. When insulin is chronically elevated, which happens when you're regularly eating refined carbohydrates and ultraprocessed food and drinking liquid sugar... visceral fat expands. When insulin comes down, visceral fat is preferentially mobilized.”
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
The study gave some women a medicine called metformin that lowers insulin, along with a low-calorie diet. The women who got metformin lost more fat from around their organs (visceral fat) than fat under their skin, especially because their insulin dropped — which is exactly what the claim says happens.
Contradicting (1)
Exercise-induced lowering of chemerin is associated with reduced cardiometabolic risk and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in older adults
The study found that exercising helped older adults lose belly fat and lowered their insulin levels after eating, but it didn’t test whether lowering insulin by itself causes belly fat to melt away faster than other fat — so we can’t say for sure the claim is right.