Research

Hormonal

Failure of adipose tissue to expand via new fat cell formation (proliferation/differentiation) forces excess lipid into ectopic sites (liver, skeletal muscle, pancreas), causing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Your body's ability to safely store fat in your fat cells is a key factor in your metabolic health. If your fat cells can't grow or multiply enough to handle your energy intake, fat spills over into your liver and muscles, causing insulin resistance. Focus on maintaining a healthy weight and metabolic health rather than just fearing fat, as the *capacity* to store fat safely matters immensely.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
failure to develop adequate adipose tissue mass in either mice or humans, also known as lipodystrophy, results in severe insulin resistance and diabetes. This is thought to be the result of ectopic storage of lipid into liver, skeletal muscle, and the pancreatic insulin-secreting beta cell.
Éric Ravussin et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2002

Why this rating

Supported by multiple lines of evidence including human lipodystrophy, transgenic animal models, and human imaging studies correlating muscle/liver fat with insulin resistance.

Source

Increased Fat Intake, Impaired Fat Oxidation, and Failure of Fat Cell Proliferation Result in Ectopic Fat Storage, Insulin Resistance, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Éric Ravussin et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2002

DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb04292.x

narrative_reviewCited 459×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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