Where your fat is stored might age your heart faster
Sex-specific body fat distribution predicts cardiovascular ageing
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Gynoid fat (hip/thigh) slows heart aging in pre-menopausal women — it’s not just neutral, it’s protective.
Everyone assumes all fat is bad, but this shows fat in the lower body acts like a metabolic sink, possibly buffering harmful lipids — a role never proven at this scale in humans.
Practical Takeaways
Get a liver fat scan (MRI or FibroScan) if you’re middle-aged — especially if you have prediabetes or drink alcohol — even if your BMI is normal.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Gynoid fat (hip/thigh) slows heart aging in pre-menopausal women — it’s not just neutral, it’s protective.
Everyone assumes all fat is bad, but this shows fat in the lower body acts like a metabolic sink, possibly buffering harmful lipids — a role never proven at this scale in humans.
Practical Takeaways
Get a liver fat scan (MRI or FibroScan) if you’re middle-aged — especially if you have prediabetes or drink alcohol — even if your BMI is normal.
Publication
Journal
European Heart Journal
Year
2025
Authors
Vladimir Losev, Chang Lu, Shamin Tahasildar, Deva S Senevirathne, P. Inglese, Wenjia Bai, Andrew P King, Mit Shah, A. de Marvao, Declan P. O’Regan
Related Content
Claims (6)
Men and women tend to store body fat in different areas: men more around the abdomen, and women more around the hips and thighs.
Higher amounts of fat in the liver are linked to older biological cardiovascular age compared to fat stored around the abdomen, with each 1% increase in liver fat corresponding to about 1.066 additional years of cardiovascular aging.
In middle-aged adults, having more fat around the internal organs is linked to a faster rate of cardiovascular aging, with each additional liter of this fat corresponding to an extra 0.656 years of biological aging in the heart and blood vessels, even after accounting for overall body weight and chronological age.
In men, having more fat around the upper body is linked to an older biological age of the heart and blood vessels, with each extra kilogram of this fat type adding nearly a year to cardiovascular age. This link is not seen in women.
In women before menopause, having more fat stored around the hips and thighs is linked to a slower decline in cardiovascular health over time, and genetic factors that influence this fat distribution are also associated with better cardiovascular outcomes.