Subcutaneous Vs. Visceral Fat In Men

[cyclops]

Does anyone know why some men seem to carry a higher amount of subcutaneous fat? I've read that visceral fat is potentially more dangerous, but I think subcutaneous looks worse. I'm wondering what the ratio one has says about the person/organism?

 

[Diokine]

Peripheral sympathetic response vs central sympathetic response.

Subcutaneous fat generally results from exposure to cortisol and glucocorticoids, along with estrogen, prolactin etc.,. reducing response to peripheral sympathetic drive and encouraging condensation of lipid.

Visceral fat generally results from excessive release of acetylcholine and activity of the cholinergic nervous system, due to chronic central sympathetic activation and extended phase of stimulation, resulting in insulin resistance and adiposity.

That's what I read on the internet anyway.

 

[smith]

You mean those result in abdominal excess / "beer belly"? Or overall, in general?

There might be some healthy balance in between excessive padding and I-Can-See-The-Bones-Underneath-Your-Skin, which seems to be common shortly after adolescence, when it just atrophies all of a sudden and never comes back, sometimes due to dieting.

What do babies have?

 

[Travis]

I think some of the extra mass around some peoples' intestines exists in the extracellular space, around adipose cells. Glycogen and hyaluronic acid are two common extracellular polysaccharides and the former is nearly indistinguishable from amylopectin. Since Volkheimer had proved that micron-sized starch particles can be persorbed whole, he had proved that dietary amylopectin can enter the extracellular space as long chains—or at least when packed inside micron-sized starch particles. I can see no reason why amylopectin wouldn't be confounded with glycogen and largely treated as such by immune cells. Both amylopectin and glycogen are α-linked branched glucose polymers differing only slightly in side-chain length and degree of branching. Glycogen is a bit more compact than amylopectin, and also a bit more ordered.

Perhaps extra subcutaneous fat could be the normal evolutionary response to cold gone haywire? If this were the case, I'd suspect vitamin D and 5-methyoxytryptophol could be involved.