Research
Mixed
Reductions in intramuscular fat (specifically core and psoas low-attenuation muscle area) are associated with improved insulin resistance, independent of visceral fat changes.
Exercise helps reduce fat stored within muscles (intramuscular fat), which directly improves how your body uses insulin. This benefit occurs even if you don't lose all your belly fat.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Changes in the core LAM area contributed to explaining some of the variation of insulin resistance... Changes in psoas and core LAM areas during the maintenance period were significantly correlated with changes in insulin resistance.
Why this rating
Correlational data from regression analysis; strong statistical significance.
Source
Long-Term Improvement in Cardiorespiratory Fitness Ameliorates Insulin Sensitivity beyond Changes in Visceral/Ectopic Fat among Men with Visceral Obesity
Adrien Murphy-Després et al. · Nutrients · 2024
DOI 10.3390/nu16091377
cohort · n=88Cited 4×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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