Oh, I don't think it's bunk. For example, when women go on oral contraceptives they pack on extra fat on the lower body, where there are more alpha-2 receptors. Also, as women lean out, we retain proportionally more of our lower body than upper body fat: in other words, we become more "gynoid" in our fat-pattern distribution as we lean out. This is wonderful news for "apples", because when they lean out, they finally get a shape. For "pears", this is very bad news, since we were gynoid to begin with. We lean out and this situation becomes WORSE. For those of us unlucky enough to have this problem, hormonal intervention and lipo are pretty much our only choices. Note that OC exacerbates this condition in several ways: SHBG is elevated as high as four-fold, binding up what little testosterone we have. With less test, we have less DHT, a natural aromatase inhibitor. Our estrogen now goes through the roof with nothing to oppose it.
Also, as people (male and female) get fatter, we produce more estrogen since peripheral estrogen production arises from the aromatase that resides in fatty tissue. Since there is an interaction between alpha receptors and estrogen, this influences the pattern in which we gain. This effect is so pronounced that there is now research to support bra size and risk of type II diabetes.
Cortisol - now that's outside of my knowledge base, but I have read of certain propensities for belly-fat in this regard.