There are many reasons to take up sport. Whether to have fun, to achieve performance, to improve your overall health, to sculpt your body, or to lose weight and fat, regular physical activity can bring many daily benefits, whether physical or mental. This is why the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults do at least 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity and at least 75 to 150 minutes per week of sustained-intensity activity. .
Female body versus male physique: a difference in the distribution and storage of human fat in them
If you want to exercise to lose weight, there are several tips that can help you achieve your weight loss goals, such as exercising at specific times, eating a balanced diet or getting enough sleep. However, despite all these tips to boost your weight loss, men and women are not equal when it comes to fat loss through sport. Indeed, if there are physiological differences in the distribution and storage of fat in the bodies of men and women, there would also be differences in the speed at which they eliminate body fat.
Weight loss: men burn fat faster than women thanks to sport
This is what highlighted a study published on May 1 in the journal Nature Metabolism. Its goal ? Determine the effects of physical activity on body fat in particular. The scientists carried out their work on male and female rats, which share much of their basic physiology with humans. Blood samples from rats that ran on treadmills were analyzed for this research.
At the end of their observations, the researchers noted a big difference in the characteristics of fats of male and female rats, whether active or sedentary. In fact, they noticed more than 20,000 different molecular measurements. “We found that the adipose tissue of males and females is very different, even in sedentary animals”, explained Christopher Newgard, one of the authors of the study, in a press release. “Men burn fat for energy, while women preserve their body fat and this phenomenon is due to many differences in the molecular responses that lie beneath the surface of the fat of male rats compared to that of female rats“, he added. Fat storage and elimination are therefore different in male and female rats.
Body fat: why do women have more body fat?
How can we explain this difference between male and female rats? “We found that both sexes mobilize their metabolism to get the energy they need, but they get their energy in different ways”, detailed Gina Many, another author of this work. She explains that “females achieve this without drawing too much on their fat reservesprobably because these are essential for reproductive health”, which would explain why males tend to eliminate fat more quickly thanks to sport. Furthermore, according to the scientists of the study, despite a greater fat mass, the women would have a lower risk of heart disease than men, partly thanks to the cardioprotective role of their adipose mass.
If these first discoveries provide explanations concerning the bodily differences between men and women, they remain only observed in rats. The researchers of the study therefore insist on the need to transpose these results to human models, in order to deepen their work.
Sources:
- Sexual dimorphism and the multi-omic response to exercise training in rat subcutaneous white adipose tissue – Nature Metabolism – May 1, 2024
- When Working Out, Males Are Programmed to Burn More Fat, While Females Recycle It—at Least in Rats – Pacific Northwest – May 1, 2024
- Physical activity – World Health Organization