Dr. Robert Lustig explains a study comparing belly fat and liver fat. When researchers held liver fat constant and varied belly fat, insulin resistance only correlated with liver fat. Belly fat turned out to be largely incidental to metabolic disease.
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Which is more important, the visceral fat or the liver fat? Okay. This was the first study to ask that question, which is more important for disease, the visceral fat or the liver fat? And so they measured both. And what they did was they did a multivariate linear regression analysis, holding the liver fat constant and looking at liver visceral fat constant and looking at liver fat, or holding liver fat constant and looking at visceral fat. Everybody see it? Okay. And what they showed was that the insulin dynamics here on the Y axis had no relation to the visceral fat. In fact, the difference was always about the liver fat. It was the liver fat that dictated the insulin resistance, not the visceral fat. Visceral fat was along for the ride.