Big Belly Worse Than Thunder Thighs Says New Study – A recent study done at the Mayo Clinic required 28 volunteers to eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, for eight weeks, all in the name of science. What was being studied, was what area of the body, when weight is gained, raises the risk of metabolic diseases like diabetes.
The volunteers, by the end of the eight weeks, had gained, on average, 5.5 pounds of fat on the upper body and 3.3 pounds of fat on the lower body.
The effects were the opposite to what was originally thought by researchers. Upper body (Abdominal.) fat appeared to heighten the rise of metabolic diseases, while lover body fat (Thigh.) seemed to lower the risk, which was an interesting result for researchers.
“The cellular mechanisms are different,” study author Dr. Michael Jensen, an endocrinologist at the clinic, said in a written statement. “The accumulation of abdominal fat happens largely by individual cells expanding in size, while the fat gain in the femoral or lower body, it’s the number of fat cells that increases. So, different mechanism, different impact.”
The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Luckily, for those volunteers who gained the weight, they lost the weight easily.