All you need to know about the different types of fat tissue, including what type of fat is cellulite
Three main types of fat: visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and cellulite
More types of fat
Visceral fat: pro-inflammatory
Subcutaneous fat: usually NOT pro-inflammatory
Hypodermal fat / cellulite: as inflammatory as visceral fat - plus it doesn’t look good
Subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and for cellulite: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is the difference between fat and cellulite?
Is cellulite subcutaneous fat?
Is cellulite visceral fat?
Fibrous fat: what is it?
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment with London’s cellulite experts
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Three main types of fat: visceral fat, subcutaneous fat and cellulite fat
Adipose tissue, a.k.a. ‘fat tissue’ or ‘body fat’, stores calories in the body in the form of ‘triglycerides’, which is the technical name for all fats and oils.
In addition, adipose tissue also secretes hormones-like substances, called adipokines, such as resistin, adiponectin, leptin, tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and even estrogen. This function makes adipose tissue an endocrine organ, not just a calorie storage organ.
In fact, adipose tissue is the largest endocrine organ in the body - especially so in overweight people.
Quite often adipokines secreted by adipose tissue cause chronic, low grade inflammation which act both locally (make the actual fat tissue inflamed and unhealthy) and on the entire body (causing anything from arthritis to heart disease).
There are three main types of fat, depending on where fat is located in the body:
Visceral fat: fat deep in the abdomen, i.e. what we call ‘pot belly’
Subcutaneous fat: fat under the skin, i.e. what we call ‘fat’ or ‘flab’
Hypodermal fat: fat in the deeper layers of the skin itself, i.e. what we call ‘cellulite’
More types of fat
In addition to these broad categories, there is also (among others), the following types of fat:
Intramuscular adipose tissue: fat inside muscles, as in the ‘marbled meat’ that we eat (think ribeyey steak) or that we also have inside our muscles
Peri-organ adipose tissue: fat around organs, such as the heart or kidneys
Intrahepatic adipose tissue: fat inside the liver, known as ‘fatty liver’
Perivascular adipose tissue: fat around blood vessels
Bone marrow adipose tissue: fat inside the bone
Brain adipose tissue
Ectopic adipose tissue: i.e. out of place fat, as in lipomas
Visceral fat: pro-inflammatory
Visceral adipose tissue (VAT), a.k.a. omental adipose tissue, is found deep inside the abdomen (between and around your gut) - and well below your abdominal muscles and the fascia underneath them.
Visceral fat is known to be pro-inflammatory and to increase the risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, whole body inflammation and heart disease (in that respect, visceral fat is only second to intrahepatic fat).
This deep belly fat is the cause of the “pot belly” or “beer belly” appearance and can only be reduced by diet, exercise, and lately, with medication such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. Visceral adipose tissue is not accessible by liposuction or by any other surgical or non-surgical treatment
If someone tells you they can reduce visceral fat with surgery or - even worse - with a non-surgical method, they simply lie.
In addition to visceral fat, you may also have superficial (subcutaneous) fat on your stomach, which can further increase the size of the ‘belly’.
And on top of the subcutaneous fat you may even have hypodermal fat, i.e. what is known as cellulite. More on those two, below.
Subcutaneous fat: usually NOT pro-inflammatory
Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), is literally “fat tissue under the skin”, as the name suggests.
This is what most people refer to as “fat”, e.g. fat cheeks, fat under-chin, fat arms, fat bum, fat thighs, fat calves, the superficial belly fat that we mentioned just above etc.
Subcutaneous fat is generally thought to NOT be pro-inflammatory, unlike visceral fat and NOT to increase the risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, whole body inflammation and heart disease. Subcutaneous fat just makes you bigger (and “flabbier”).
Sure the extra weight is not good for your joints and with time it may eventually become inflamed, but generally it isn’t very inflammatory, as visceral fat is.
But definitely subcutaneous fat is not anti-inflammatory, as some people suggest. It literally serves as a dumping ground for excess calories in the body, so they do not end up in visceral adipose tissue, but that’s where its anti-inflammatory action ends.
Subcutaneous fat can be reduced by diet and exercise and it can also be removed by liposuction.
Non-surgical subcutaneous fat removal is largely ineffective and inefficient - don’t bother:
Cryolipolysis offers a 50% chance of success in 10-20% fat reduction on the stomach and waist area; and a 10% chance of success on any other body area
Any other non-surgical method fat reduction is generally ineffective
If there was an effective, efficient and SAFE non-surgical fat reduction that worked at least 80% of the time, we would already offer it at the clinic.
If someone tells you they can remove large amounts of subcutaneous fat with ANY non-surgical method, they simply lie.
Hypodermal fat / cellulite: as inflammatory as visceral fat - plus it doesn’t look good
On top of the subcutaneous fat lies a thin layer of fibrous fat (i.e. fat compartmentalised by collagen sheaths and surrounded by perpendicular to the surface collagen strands).
This fat:
Lays above the subcutaneous fat and is separated from it by a thin layer of collagen, called intermediate fascia
Lays below the dermis (middle skin layer) and is an integral part of the skin, called hypodermis
Hypodermal adipose tissue behaves differently to subcutaneous adipose tissue, in that is is as prone to inflammation as visceral fat. Plus it is prone to fibrosis (quite often fibrosis goes hand in hand with inflammation).
Both inflammation and fibrosis are hallmarks of what is called cellulite.
Those two properties make cellulite - especially progressed, inflamed and fibrous cellulite - a very unhealthy tissue.
Cellulite / hypodermal fat is also NOT removable by liposuction.
If someone tells you they can remove cellulite with liposuction, they simply lie.
Furthermore, non-surgical cellulite removal is largely ineffective and inefficient with most techniques and treatments.
Deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation, however, are the two main techniques that are:
effective - i.e. techniques that “work”
SAFE
and efficient - i.e. that work with a reasonable number of sessions (about 6-12)
If someone tells you they can remove cellulite with one or two very expensive, very dangerous painful sessions, they simply lie.
A very small number of creams with:
…can also reduce cellulite in a slower (but more economical) way than treatments.
And no, a simplistic 2% caffeine-only cream won’t cut it - we all wish it was that easy and cheap…
Obviously, the combination of healthy nutrition, exercise, intensive treatments and concentrated creams will offer the fastest, most impressive results.
Subcutaneous fat, visceral fat and for cellulite: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
We hope everything is now clear regarding cellulite, fat and belly fat.
Below are some straight, quick answers to the most common questions related to this subject, to clarify finer points and add more detail.
What is the difference between fat and cellulite?
As discussed above the difference between ‘cellulite’ and ‘fat’ is that ‘fat’ is subcutaneous adipose tissue (i.e. fat UNDER the skin) and ‘cellulite’ is hypodermal adipose tissue (i.e. fat INSIDE the skin).
Fat can only be removed by liposuction (or reduced by diet and exercise) and can’t be removed by non-surgical treatments
Cellulite can NOT be removed by liposuction but CAN ONLY be removed by non-surgical treatments (or reduced by diet and exercise)
Is cellulite subcutaneous fat?
As described above, cellulite is NOT subcutaneous fat - it is hypodermal fat sitting on top of subcutaneous fat and separated from it by the intermediate fascia.
Is cellulite visceral fat?
Absolutely not. Visceral fat actually lies even deeper than subcutaneous fat, on the stomach area. Visceral fat is the deepest fat tissue in the stomach area while cellulite is the most superficial fat tissue in the that area.
Fibrous fat: what is it?
Any fat which has a high amount of collagen fibres in it, is fibrous fat. Usually fibrous fat is the result of prolonged fat inflammation.
All types of fat, visceral, intrahepatic (liver fat), subcutaneous and cellulite fat can all become quite fibrous.
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
At LipoTherapeia we are passionate about phototherapy (also known as photobiomodulation/PBM, red light therapy, infrared light therapy, blue light therapy, LED light therapy etc) and we use the most powerful equipment available today (up to 200mW/cm2), for best results and treatment of large body areas.
We use specialised therapy protocols for skin rejuvenation / anti-ageing, pigmentation / post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), moderate/severe acne, skin redness, sensitive/inflamed/irritated skin, wound healing, sports injuries / musculoskeletal pain and overall wellness / well-being.
Our LED phototherapy sessions are comfortable, deeply relaxing and super-safe and are great to enhance our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments for skin tightening / cellulite reduction.
On our booking page you can book stand-alone phototherapy sessions or combine them with our other treatments, as an add-on.
Learn more or check prices and book an expert LED phototherapy treatment at our London clinic.
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Attend a half-day, 1-day, 2-day or 3-day one-to-one masterclass and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
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