There are a multitude of endocrine abnormalities in human obesity In this review, those of steroid hormones, growth hormone (GH), end insulin are considered, Characteristic of all these abnormalities is that they are more pronounced in obesity with central visceral preponderance than with peripheral gluteofemoral enlargement of adipose tissue depots, Cortisol secretion is frequently increased as a result of a hypersensitive hypothalamopituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, This may also be followed by increased adrenal androgen secretion in women, The HPA axis disturbance might be due to excess traffic over the axis and/or a downregulation of the feedback inhibition by central glucocorticoid receptors, with or without a genetic susceptibility, Probably secondarily the hypothalamopituitary-gonadal and GH axes are inhibited, The net result is increased cortisol, and, in women, androgen secretions, and inhibited gender-specific sex steroid hormones as well as GH, These hormonal abnormalities; in concert with elevated free fatty acid concentrations, probably contribute significantly to peripheral insulin resistance, Cortisol and insulin facilitate triglyceride accumulation, whereas sex steroids and GH both inhibit triglyceride accumulation as well as activate lipid mobilization pathways The endocrine abnormalities in central, visceral obesity therefore seem to create a milieu for Lipid accumulation in adipose tissue in general, This is probably more pronounced in visceral than in other adipose tissue depots because of the higher density of active cytoplasmic mass, elevated blood flow, and dense innervation as well as the higher density of specific steroid hormone receptors; Therefore, excess triglycerides probably tend to accumulate preferentially in visceral adipose tissue because of the combined endocrine abnormalities in central, visceral obesity. This conclusion is based on consistent data regarding cellular and molecular levels from ia Five studies of lipid uptake and mobilization in humans, as,yell. as from clinical and intervention studies with in vitro measurements of metabolic pathways and the net effects on visceral adipose tissue mass, The effect of steroid hormones in women remains nuclear.