Joel, honestly at this point I don’t remember. However, if you do a search for “subcutaneous visceral fat loss” you’ll get plenty of hits, some on point, some not. I found some PubMed references, too, but I’m not as good at analyzing PubMed as you are.
Below is something I found on Google, but I don’t know who did the study.
If I had been more awake when I posted, I would have used the word “preferentially.”
"Publishing their findings in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Japanese researchers have shown that dieting leads to a greater reduction in visceral fat ? the fat that protects your internal organs [1]. Exercise, on the other hand, has a greater impact on subcutaneous fat.
"The women in the study took part in a 13-week program that combined exercise with a restricted-calorie diet. One group followed the diet, combined with 1-2 days per week of exercise. Group two made no change to their diet, but exercised 3-4 days each week.
"Although both groups lost roughly the same amount of fat, the women who exercised for 3-4 days each week lost more subcutaneous fat than those who exercised only 1-2 days weekly.
"In the group who exercised more frequently, 6 of every 10 pounds of fat lost came from subcutaneous fat.
"In the group who exercised less frequently, less than 3 of every 10 pounds of fat lost came from subcutaneous fat.
"When the results of both groups were analyzed, the researchers found a link between exercise frequency and the loss of subcutaneous fat. In other words, the more often you exercise, the more subcutaneous fat you’ll lose. The minor effect of dieting on subcutaneous fat could explain why dieters can lose a lot of weight, but remain unhappy with their appearance.