It appears obese women take the cake when it comes to physical fitness: Dutch researchers found that obese men may be less fit than obese women because they are more susceptible to diabetes or pre-diabetes and tend to have more abdominal fat.
The study involved 56 morbidly obese patients (those with a body mass index of 40 or more) who were preparing for weight-loss surgery. Although both the men and women were equally overweight, the women were found to perform better on a bicycle test of exercise endurance and lung capacity tests.
According to researchers, this could be because:
Men tend to have more upper body fat -- including abdominal fat -- than women do. Having more abdominal fat may affect lung capacity.
Women are better equipped for energy storage due to their natural need to feed their offspring. Men simply do not have the reserve capacity that women do to handle excess food, which results in stress to their bodies and decreased performance.
What about Carbohydrate Intolerance?
Researchers also explained that the difference between obese men and women could be a result of how their body fat was distributed. This could play a role in how they process sugar and other simple carbohydrates.
More of the men, researchers found, had a pre-diabetic condition known as carbohydrate intolerance -- the inability to metabolize sugar found in carbohydrates. This intolerance may lead to a buildup of fat deposits on muscle tissue, which can result in weight gain and impaired physical endurance.
Chest July 2005, Vol. 128, No. 1:256-262
RedNova.com July 12, 2005
Although there appear to be some marked differences between the health profiles of obese men and women, it is important to understand that obesity isn't actually "healthy" for anyone.
While obese women may score better on fitness tests than men do, I suspect both groups are well out of the range of what would actually be considered ideal or healthy.
It is also important to realize that simply keeping yourself thin does not necessarily equate to being healthy. A recent study confirmed that the healthiest people around are those who are lean AND physically active. Just as there are problems with being overweight, underweight individuals may have insufficient lean body mass to carry on many important body functions.
If you are one of the two-thirds of those in Western countries struggling with your weight, it's important that you use regular exercise as one of the main tools to help you lose those extra pounds. Regardless of your gender, doing so will not only make the weight come off faster and stay that way, it will improve your health as well.
To learn more about obesity, why it occurs, and what you can do about it, please read Dr. Ron Rosedale's excellent article about leptin's powerful role in obesity. You can also check out Dr. Rosedale's book, The Rosedale Diet, which teaches you the specifics of how a targeted diet that emphasizes good fats and avoids blood sugar spikes can make all the difference in the world to your health.
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