Why do men and women store fat differently, study finds out
| Jan 24, 2019, 16:03 IST
We always knew that fat accumulated in different places of the body for men and women, but thanks to a new study that studied the body measurements of 362,499 people, we can officially say that the places where fat accumulates in the body in men and women is far from random. The study says that that the fate of a fat cell on where it ends up in the stomach, legs or hips is directly related to the 98 fat genes in our body. So you can go on eating as many avocados or chug apple cider, or whether you’re a man or woman, it won’t matter.
The study that was published in the journal Nature Communications, said that even though it’s common knowledge that men and women accumulate fat differently, the study’s lead author and researcher, Mathias Rask-Andersen, Ph.D said that his work corroborates this common observation with hand data.
The study team found that men carried 28% of their body fat in the legs and hips and women carried 39.7% of their body fat in those areas. For the trunk, men carried 62.2% of their body fat and women carried only 50%. Rask-Anderson said, these striking differences were due to the actions of the 98 genes that he identified in the genetic data of the individuals he studied.
So what makes these genes active and inactive? Factors like the environment or light exposure influence cells to express certain genes. One of the factors that might activate these genes in women, Rask-Andersen says, are sex-specific hormones that are more abundant in women’s bodies than men’s, though he adds that this still needs to be demonstrated in other studies.
The findings aren’t especially great news for men, but they’re an important step toward understanding all the different factors that contribute to weight-related health, from diet and exercise to genetics.
The study that was published in the journal Nature Communications, said that even though it’s common knowledge that men and women accumulate fat differently, the study’s lead author and researcher, Mathias Rask-Andersen, Ph.D said that his work corroborates this common observation with hand data.
The study team found that men carried 28% of their body fat in the legs and hips and women carried 39.7% of their body fat in those areas. For the trunk, men carried 62.2% of their body fat and women carried only 50%. Rask-Anderson said, these striking differences were due to the actions of the 98 genes that he identified in the genetic data of the individuals he studied.
So what makes these genes active and inactive? Factors like the environment or light exposure influence cells to express certain genes. One of the factors that might activate these genes in women, Rask-Andersen says, are sex-specific hormones that are more abundant in women’s bodies than men’s, though he adds that this still needs to be demonstrated in other studies.
The findings aren’t especially great news for men, but they’re an important step toward understanding all the different factors that contribute to weight-related health, from diet and exercise to genetics.