Research

Hormonal

In older obese postmenopausal women, higher visceral adipose tissue (VAT) levels are independently associated with lower glucose disposal (insulin resistance), whereas total fat mass and subcutaneous adipose tissue are not significant predictors.

For older obese women, simply losing total weight may not be enough to improve insulin sensitivity if visceral fat remains high. Focus on strategies that specifically target abdominal/visceral fat, as this tissue type is the primary driver of insulin resistance in this demographic, independent of total body fat or muscle fitness levels.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Visceral adipose tissue is an important and independent predictor of glucose disposal, whereas markers of skeletal muscle fat content or physical activity exhibit little association in obese postmenopausal women.
Martin Brochu et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2000

Why this rating

High-quality methodology (clamps, CT scans) and rigorous control of confounders (weight stabilization, matching), but cross-sectional design limits causal inference.

Source

Visceral Adipose Tissue Is an Independent Correlate of Glucose Disposal in Older Obese Postmenopausal Women1

Martin Brochu et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2000

DOI 10.1210/jcem.85.7.6685

cross_sectional · n=44Cited 177×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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