All Fat Is Not Created Equal

I read with interest your story “Thigh Anxiety” (Aug. 23).

When I researched my latest book, “The New Mother’s Body Book,” a handful of medical experts on human fat and female anatomy told me that fat gained in the bottom half of the body (thighs, hips, buttocks), where most women put on the pounds, really is biochemically different and harder to get rid of than fat in the face, abdomen and other high places (where men tend to store it).

Fat below the waist simply doesn’t break down for use as energy as easily as fat in the abdomen does-- unless you’re pregnant or breast-feeding. In fact, some of these experts staunchly believe that if you go into pregnancy carrying saddlebags on your thighs, breast-feeding is the only opportunity you’ll ever have--unless you opt for liposuction--to rid yourself of that particular fat.

Obviously, it’s yet another reason to opt for breast-feeding over bottle-feeding if you’re able.

JACQUELINE SHANNON

La Mesa