| Summary: | High whole-body and visceral adiposity are risk factors that can cause metabolic diseases. We hypothesized that the total hemoglobin concentration (total-Hb) in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT<sub>ab</sub>), an indicator of white adipose tissue (WAT) vascularity, correlates negatively with risk factors for developing metabolic diseases, such as whole-body and visceral adiposity. We tested the optical characteristics of abdominal tissue in 140 participants (45 men and 95 women) who were apparently healthy individuals with a median age of 39 years. They also had a median body fat percentage of 25.4%, a visceral fat area of 50.4 cm<sup>2</sup>, and a SAT<sub>ab</sub> thickness of 1.05 cm. These tests were conducted using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy (NIR<sub>TRS</sub>) with a 2-cm optode separation. To distinguish the segments of SAT<sub>ab</sub> (Seg<sub>SAT</sub>) and the mixture of muscle and SAT<sub>ab</sub> (Seg<sub>SAT+Mus</sub>), the threshold was analyzed using the slopes of (total-Hb) against the thickness of SAT<sub>ab</sub> using the least-squares mean method. According to the results from the logistic regression analysis, the percentage of body fat and visceral fat area remained significant predictors of the (total-Hb) (<i>p</i> = 0.005 and <i>p</i> = 0.043, respectively) in the data for Seg<sub>SAT</sub> (no influence from the SAT<sub>ab</sub> thickness). We conclude that simple, rapid, and noninvasive NIR<sub>TRS</sub>-determined (total-Hb) in WAT could be a useful parameter for evaluating risk factors for metabolic diseases.
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