Public lecture: All fat is not equal

This public lecture was delivered in May 2021 by Dr Scott Willis, Research Associate in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. The talk, All fat is not equal, discussed the causes, consequences and preventive strategies to combat ectopic fat.

Obesity is defined as the excessive accumulation of body fat which presents a risk to health. However, storing fat centrally in visceral and ectopic areas, i.e. in tissues not designed for mass fat storage such as the liver, is associated with a much greater health risk.

As a result, ectopic fat accumulation plays an important role in the development of obesity-related chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic-dysfunction associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). This lecture provided an overview of the causes and consequences of ectopic fat accumulation, presented the current research being conducted at Loughborough University relating to this topic and discussed potential preventive strategies with a particular focus on exercise and diet.

	Dr Scott Willis is a Research Associate at Loughborough University as part of the Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, Lifestyle theme. Scott’s research broadly focuses on exercise, diet and chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD).

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