Evidence against functional differences between "central" and "peripheral" fat.

Abstract

As shown in 1639 men and 1851 women in the 20-49 y age range, four commonly used skinfold measurements (triceps, subscapular, iliac, and abdominal) are all highly covariant and do not show clear evidence of upper-body and lower-body or central and peripheral groupings. Moreover, the four skinfold measurements are similarly related to systolic and diastolic blood pressures and to total serum cholesterol at each decile of skinfold thickness and to a degree that strikingly parallels summed skinfold thickness (sigma sf). The changing relative contributions of the different skinfold measurements to the summed skinfold thicknesses with increasing levels of fatness also reveal no evidence of consistent anatomical or topographical groupings by body segment or distance from the body core.