Research

Hormonal

Hepatic triglyceride content (IHCL) is significantly and positively correlated with central adiposity, specifically intra-abdominal and subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue, independent of total body fat or BMI.

Your liver fat is closely tied to your abdominal fat, not just your total weight. Even if you are lean, high abdominal fat can lead to significant liver triglyceride accumulation. Conversely, losing abdominal fat is likely to reduce liver fat more effectively than focusing on total body weight alone. Non-invasive imaging like MRS can monitor this, but lifestyle changes targeting abdominal adiposity are the primary lever.

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Multiple regression analysis revealed, after allowing for sex and age, a significant relationship between IHCL content of the liver and... central obesity (IHCL increased by 72% for each 1% increase in subcutaneous abdominal AT... and IHCL increased by 104% for each 1% increase in intra-abdominal AT... p = 0.001).
E. Louise Thomas et al. · Gut · 2004

Why this rating

Observational study with robust imaging (MRS/MRI) and statistical adjustment for age/sex, but n=34 is small.

Source

Hepatic triglyceride content and its relation to body adiposity: a magnetic resonance imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

E. Louise Thomas et al. · Gut · 2004

DOI 10.1136/gut.2003.036566

cross_sectional · n=34Cited 314×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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