BACKGROUND: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is well established as a pathogenic fat depot, whereas superficial subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) is associated with either an improved or neutral cardiovascular state. However, it is unclear to what extent VAT area (VATcm METHODS: We integrated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of VAT, deep-SAT, and superficial-SAT from two 18-month lifestyle weight loss clinical trials, CENTRAL and DIRECT PLUS (n = 572). RESULTS: At baseline, the mean VATcm CONCLUSIONS: MRI follow-up of 572 participants over 18 months of weight loss intervention suggests that although increased VATcm TRIAL REGISTRATION: CENTRAL (Clinical-trials-identifier: NCT01530724)
DIRECT PLUS (Clinical-trials-identifier: NCT03020186).