Research

Hormonal

Visceral fat accumulation is the strongest independent determinant of systemic oxidative stress, as measured by urinary 8-epi-prostaglandin F2α, and this association is stronger in non-obese individuals than in the general population.

Your metabolic health risk from oxidative stress is tied more to your belly fat (visceral fat) than your total body weight. Even if you are not 'overweight' by BMI standards, high visceral fat is a strong predictor of systemic oxidative stress and metabolic syndrome. Focus on reducing abdominal fat through lifestyle changes rather than just focusing on total body weight.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Stepwise multiple regression analysis identified VFA as the strongest and independent determinant of urinary 8-epi-PGF2α (p<0.0001)... Furthermore, among non-obese subjects, the correlation coefficient of VFA with urinary 8-epi-PGF2α concentration was higher (r=0.728, p<0.0001)... There was no significant correlation between SFA or BMI and urinary 8-epi-PGF2α concentration in non-obese subjects.
Koichi Fujita et al. · Circulation Journal · 2006

Why this rating

The study uses a robust biomarker (8-epi-PGF2α) and rigorous statistical controls (stepwise regression) in a defined population, but it is a cross-sectional observational study, limiting causal inference.

Source

Systemic Oxidative Stress is Associated With Visceral Fat Accumulation and the Metabolic Syndrome

Koichi Fujita et al. · Circulation Journal · 2006

DOI 10.1253/circj.70.1437

cross_sectional · n=105Cited 296×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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