Research
Mixed
Women have higher levels of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and fat mass (FM) than men for any given waist circumference or BMI.
If you are a woman, your BMI or waist circumference likely underestimates your total body fat and subcutaneous fat compared to a man with the same measurements. Women store more fat in the subcutaneous layer. This means standard 'healthy' ranges for BMI/WC might not reflect the same level of total adiposity for women as they do for men.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
For a given level of WC or BMI, women had higher levels of SAT than men... Regardless of WC or BMI, women had higher levels of SAT and FM than men.
Why this rating
Large sample, direct measurement, consistent main effects.
Source
The Relationship of Waist Circumference and BMI to Visceral, Subcutaneous, and Total Body Fat: Sex and Race Differences
Sarah M. Camhi et al. · Obesity · 2010
DOI 10.1038/oby.2010.248
cross_sectional · n=1667Cited 562×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Waist circumference (WC) and BMI are significantly less accurate predictors of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) compared to total fat mass (FM) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) across all demographic groups.Good
- For a given waist circumference or BMI, white adults have higher levels of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) than African-American adults, particularly at higher levels of adiposity.Good
Related findings · Mixed
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