Even though lipids is the correct scientific term for describing both fats and cholesterol, it's fairly common for people to say fats when they actually mean lipids.. So from this perspective, we think it would be fine to say that cholesterol is a type of fat. Cholesterol is a very unique type of fat, however.ot only does it have chemical rings in its structure, but these ring structures have to occur in a very particular configuration. It's fairly complicated for our bodies to make this unique type of fat. In a practical, dietary sense, there is one very basic difference between cholesterol and other fats.