Subcutaneous fat
You want it lower, and it is the depot that responds first. It is measured directly by imaging: a trial that reports only body fat percent or waist circumference has not measured it.
In depth
Subcutaneous adipose tissue — the fat layer beneath the skin, measured by CT, MRI or regional DXA rather than by weight or waist size.
What drives it
Releases stored fat reduces it.
Mice lacking adipose triglyceride lipase could not mobilise stored triacylglycerol and consequently carried increased adipose mass with triacylglycerol deposition in multiple tissues, showing that lipolysis is the step that depletes stored fat. doi 10.1126/science.1123965 · PMID 16675698
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.