Research

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Subcutaneous femoral (thigh) adipose tissue has significantly higher triglyceride (TG) replacement rates compared to subcutaneous abdominal (abdominal) adipose tissue in women with obesity.

Your body stores and processes fat differently depending on where it is. This study found that fat in your thighs (subcutaneous femoral) turns over (is broken down and rebuilt) faster than fat in your abdomen (subcutaneous abdominal). This might explain why some people find it easier to lose thigh fat than belly fat. It doesn't mean you can't lose belly fat, but it suggests that abdominal fat might be more 'stubborn' due to slower turnover rates.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Interestingly, our findings also show that the scFEM adipose depot had higher TG replacement rates relative to the scABD.
Ursula White et al. · Journal of Lipid Research · 2018

Why this rating

Measured using the same robust in vivo deuterium labeling method, with statistically significant results (P = 0.04).

Source

Racial differences in in vivo adipose lipid kinetics in humans

Ursula White et al. · Journal of Lipid Research · 2018

DOI 10.1194/jlr.p082628

cross_sectional · n=52Cited 15×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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