Diagnosing obesity by mathematically estimating abdominal fat. Abdominal obesity, or fat that accumulates around one's stomach and abdomen, has long been considered to pose a high health risk in individuals. Hence, measurement of abdominal fat helps predict propensity to disorders caused by excess weight in the abdominal area. In a new paper, researchers propose a new technique to evaluate abdominal obesity by estimating the thickness of subcutaneous fat. Source 6z.