After high fat meals, women preferentially store fat in their legs. Storage in upper body subcutaneous tissue was similar in both sexes…suggesting that the men were preferentially storing the fat as visceral fat.

The researchers concluded that this was driven by increased LPL (lipoprotein lipase) activity in women, which is most likely mediated by estrogen. HL (hepatic lipase) increases visceral fat. High HL/LPL ratios lead to increased visceral fat in both sexes.

PMID: 16803856