Study: People with fat thighs may live longer

Most of the women in the world desire to have model-like long and skinny body to look hot and curvy.

Heavier buttocks are healthier
But, a new study from the University of Oxford and Churchill Hospital in the United Kingdom suggests that fat stored on the thighs, hips and buttocks is healthier than that stored around the abdomen.

"The fact that body fat's distribution is quite important for your health has been known for some time now," said lead researcher Konstantinos Manolopoulos of the University of Oxford in England, MSNBC reports.

But Manolopoulos says their study shows that such hip and thigh fat can actively protect against diabetes, heart disease and other health problems associated with obesity. The research further show that having bigger butt is much better than carrying fat around the waist, which tends to release more harmful fatty acids into the body.

"Fat around the hips and thighs is good for you but around the tummy is bad," said Dr Manolopoulos.

"The fat around the tummy is what we call a metabolically active tissue, which means that it takes up fatty acids from meals quite avidly and releases them in times of exercise, again quite avidly, while the thigh fat is basically long-term storage, so it's much more sluggish in its metabolism," he said.

"Ideally we'd have very flat tummies and very large hips. It's a bit difficult to sell, obviously, this way of, let's say, promoting health.

"The saying 'one minute on the lips, forever on the hips' ... there is certainly something true on that."

Heavy bums may protect from diseases
Dr Manolopoulos further says the fat on the thighs and hips actually protects the body from diseases related to obesity.

"It is the thigh fat that is the source of some beneficial hormones which are called leptin and adiponectin," he said.

"They help the body metabolise sugars and fats in a better way. In contrast, tummy fat, it's actually known and proven that it secretes a series of deleterious hormones that promotes exactly the opposite."

Dr Manolopoulos and colleagues reached their findings after summarizing various studies on the health effects of different fat stores in the body, particularly around the hips and thighs.

The findings are published this week in the International Journal of Obesity.