“Stomach fat is literally the uterus (or womb)” is a popular and persistent claim: in 2020, health influencer and dietitian Colleen Christensen posted an image on her No Food Rules Instagram account reassuring her subscribers “that (the) bump at the bottom of your belly is your uterus.
Christensen shared how frustrated she was about not being able to have a flat stomach until a friend put her at ease by explaining that “that bump is organs.”
As Christensen quickly learned in his comments section, that’s not really the case: Internal Organs TO DO take up space in your body, but the uterus – a thick-walled hollow organ where the fetus develops during pregnancy – is located in the female pelvis, between the bladder and rectum, not in the stomach. (To Christensen’s credit, she later updated her post with more information for her followers.)
Dr. Lisa Erlanger, clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, explained more to us in an email interview: “The bony part contains the uterus and ovaries,” a- she declared. “The hips are wider and angled differently in women, which naturally gives a different appearance, but the uterus is not usually found in what we think of as the belly.”
We also need many other body structures in this region, said Dr. Stephanie Trentacoste McNally, director of OB-GYN services at the Katz Institute for Women’s Health.
“In this part of our anatomy there are many layers, from skin to fascia – which are the strong tissues that hold you together – muscles, nerves, blood vessels, connective tissue and fat,” she explained to HuffPost.
