Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Storing fat subcutaneously (especially in the hips and thighs) is metabolically favorable compared to storing it viscerally or in the liver, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease despite higher overall body fat.
Focus on maintaining muscle mass and healthy fat distribution rather than just losing weight. If you have a 'pear' shape (fat stored in hips/thighs), you may have a lower risk of diabetes than someone with a 'apple' shape (visceral fat), even if your BMI is high.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
These findings support the notion that storing fat in the lower body (hip) may be more metabolically favourable compared with centrally or in other locations.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple genetic studies (Ji et al., Huang et al., Winkler et al., Martin et al.) using MRI and GWAS data.
Source
Identifying obesity subtypes: A review of studies utilising clinical biomarkers and genetic data
Angela Abraham et al. · Diabetic Medicine · 2023
DOI 10.1111/dme.15226
narrative_reviewCited 20×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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