JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

The Two Types of BODY FAT

31 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment, JJ Virgin explains that the body stores fat in two primary forms: subcutaneous fat, which lies just under the skin and is often noticeable when pinched, typically accumulating around the hips and thighs and giving a pear-shaped appearance; and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), which surrounds internal organs deep within the abdominal cavity, such as the liver, pancreas, and intestines. She emphasizes that VAT is particularly harmful because it is metabolically active, releasing inflammatory cytokines and free fatty acids into the bloodstream. These substances disrupt insulin signaling, promote insulin resistance, and increase the risk of serious health conditions including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

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We got two basic kinds of fat. We got subcutaneous fat. You hear that pinch and itch. And then we have this visceral fat or the vat fat. Visceral adipose tissue, vat fat, is surrounding all those internal organs. It's deep in the abdominal cavity. And so it's like things like the liver, the pancreas, the intestines. And people have more subcutaneous. They might have like more around their thighs, more around their hips. They're more pear-shaped. Now, the reason that vat fat is so bad to your overall health, first of all, bad for your metabolism, bad metabolic impact, because visceral adipose tissue is actually more metabolically active and it releases more of these inflammatory cytokines and free fatty acids into the bloodstream. So when this happens, these substances can interfere with insulin signaling, actually promote insulin resistance, and contribute to the development of a whole bunch of bad stuff like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.