Understanding the distribution of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) within the abdomen is fundamental for the evaluation of obesity and diabetes. Expansion of SAT and VAT contributes to the metabolic syndrome including obesity and diabetes. VAT can be further compartmentalized as perirenal, mesentric, gonadal, retroperitoneal and intraperitoneal based on the locations in abdomen. During obesity these fat depots can contribute by secreting various bioactive molecules and hormones, such as adiponectin, leptin, tumour necrosis factor, resistin and interleutin 6 (IL-6)¹.During weight loss interventions like exercise (EX) and calorie restriction (CR) these fat depots can vary in their response including secretion of hormones. Studies have shown that lipolysis is heterogeneous in different adipose tissue regions of SAT and VAT; with intra-abdominal VAT being most active ^{2, 3}. During endurance exercise, the lipolysis rate is increased in upper abdominal SAT than in lower body SAT⁴. Loss of fat/weight is associated with improvements in risk factors of obesity⁵ making the identification of the measurement of SAT/VAT volume particularly important for calculating the change in SAT/VAT due to weight-loss interventions. Several studies utilize a single-slice image at L4–L5 to estimate the VAT. There have been arguments on which is the most suitable location for estimating the total volume of VAT using a single slice estimation^6-8. In this study we have investigated the changes in accumulation and mobilization in different locations of the abdomen with exercise and diet interventions.All in-vivo experiments were in compliance and approved by institutional animal care and use committee. In-vivo imaging was performed with a 7T Bruker Clinscan at two time points (pre- and post-scans) during the study. Transverse turbo spin echo (TSE) abdominal images (from L1 – L5 of the spine) of Fisher 344 rats, CLEA Japan were acquired during the study. The rats were fed with high fat diet from 5 to 18 weeks of age to induce obesity. The rodents were divided into 5 different cohorts (N = 7): control (CG), exercise (EX-1, EX 2; exercise once /twice a day), and calorie restriction (CR-15, CR-30; -15% and -30% reduction in calorie intake). The exercise intervention was induced by making the rodents to run for 30 minutes at a speed of 20m/min on a treadmill. The weight-loss interventions were performed for 4 weeks. The body weight was measured on weekdays and food intake was measured every day. Both scans (pre- and post-intervention) used the same protocol with an FOV of 65 X 65 mm, base resolution of 256 X 256. Segmentation of VAT and SAT was performed by an in-house developed hybrid algorithm which combined level set and fuzzy clustering methods^{9, 10}. MATLAB was used to develop and implement the segmentation method. Statistical Analysis: The pre/post analysis of the MRI estimates of abdominal SAT and VAT volumes, and fat at each lumbar position for different interventions were analysed using ANCOVA. The post-intervention scores were used as the dependent variable with the pre-intervention scores as a covariate and the cohort as the fixed factor. Both pre/post analyses planned comparisons of the intervention groups were made with the high fat diet control group with a student’s t-test.The total SAT and VAT volume based analysis showed significance (p <0.05) for CR-30, EX-1 and EX-2 cohorts (Fig. 1 and 2), while the same was not reflected in the lumbar position based analysis. The percentage change in SAT and VAT volumes at different lumbar positions (L1-L5) for control group (CG), calorie restriction (CR-15, CR-30) and exercise (EX-1, EX_2) interventions are shown in Fig. 3. In the detailed lumbar based analysis, the percentage VAT change at all the lumbar positions (L1 – L5) in exercise groups (EX-1 and EX-2) was significant; whereas the CR-30 had significant changes in VAT at L5 and L3 positions only. SAT changes were significant for L1 and L3 sections in EX-1 and EX-2 cohorts; whereas calorie restriction cohorts did not have any significant changes in SAT.We have quantitatively assessed the changes in SAT/VAT at each lumbar position due to weight-loss interventions of exercise and calorie restriction using MRI in high fat diet fed rat model. Our results demonstrate the nature of changes in the fat patterns for both calorie restriction and exercise interventions at each lumbar position. Our results show heterogeneity in fat accumulation and mobilization during obesity and weight-loss interventions. Hence, a detailed whole abdomen based analysis is required to accurately assess the response of various fat depots. The specific changes in SAT/VAT at each lumbar position might also influence the quality of fat.