Thankfully, my perspective has shifted. These days, my focus is on being stronger, more resilient, and well-supported for the long term, especially when it comes to muscle and bone health. 

The same rethinking applies to body fat. 

For a long time, we were taught that fat is something to minimise at all costs. But physiologically, it’s not that simple. Body fat isn’t inherently “bad”. It plays important roles in energy storage, hormone signalling, and overall health. 

One way I’ve found helpful to understand this is to think of body fat like a pantry. 

We all need somewhere safe to store energy. Subcutaneous fat, the fat just under the skin, is like a purpose-built pantry. It’s where the body is designed to store energy safely and access it when needed. 

In particular, fat stored around the hips, thighs, and buttocks is often associated with more favourable metabolic and cardiovascular health outcomes. This type of fat behaves differently from fat stored deeper in the body as it tends to be less inflammatory and, in many cases, can help protect our health. 

Visceral fat, on the other hand, is more like storing food in places it doesn’t belong, overflowing into hallways and cupboards that weren’t designed for it. This is the fat stored around internal organs, and it’s the type more strongly linked to insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic dysfunction. 

Where it gets interesting is that we don’t all have the same “pantry size.” 

Some people naturally have a larger capacity to store energy safely in subcutaneous fat. Others have a smaller capacity, meaning that once that “pantry” fills up, excess energy is more likely to spill over into less ideal storage, like visceral fat. 

This helps explain why body size alone doesn’t always reflect metabolic health. 

I’ve always been naturally small. From the outside, that can sometimes be interpreted as “healthy.” But what I’ve come to understand is that I have a very small ‘pantry', which means that if I don’t support my body well, I can be more prone to storing fat in less ideal places, even if it’s not obvious from appearance alone. 

So, this isn’t about one body type being better than another. It’s about recognising that different bodies store and manage energy differently, and that health can’t be judged by size alone. 

Body shape can offer some broad clues. For example, fat carried around our thighs and hips is often metabolically less risky than fat stored centrally), but it’s not definitive. 

If someone wants a clearer picture, tools like a DEXA scan can provide insight into body composition, including fat distribution, muscle mass, and bone density. But measuring isn’t essential for everyone and numbers are only one piece of the picture. 

What matters most is how we support our bodies over time. 

That might look like: