Men Suffer More in Obesity Than Do Women

A new study reported on Healthcentral News suggests that obese men suffer more detriment to their health than do women. Study co-author Dr. Emile F. L. Dubois, from the Department of Pulmonary Diseases at the Hospital Reinier de Graaf Groep in Delft-Voorburg, the Netherlands, focused on 56 severely obese Dutch patients -- 22 men and 34 women, all white. None was known to have a history of heart disease or diabetes.

Blood samples were taken, and all patients were assessed for evidence of carbohydrate intolerance and diabetes. Hormone levels and body fat composition were also calculated, and all the men and women completed a bicycle exercise test to observe respiratory health, muscle strength and fatigue.

According to the researchers, men generally failed to meet expectations on the cycle test while women exceeded the anticipated results.

The women demonstrated better lung capacity -- and significantly better endurance -- when exercising than the men, the study team found.

In addition, 59 percent of the men were found to be either carbohydrate-intolerant or diabetic, compared with just 35 percent of the women.

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"We were surprised by our findings," Dubois said. "We had the idea that severely obese men and women would both have muscle and endurance capacities above normal, because they're carrying a lot of weight around all day long. But this was only true among women. The men really under-performed."

Dubois suggested a range of potential explanations, including the possibility that women are naturally more efficient at energy storage due to the role they play as a food source for newborns. Another theory is that hormones produced by fat tissue -- including estrogen -- might partially explain gender differences. Men could be more negatively affected than women by the release of these hormones, Dubois speculated.

But the most promising explanation might be linked to the distribution of fat around the body. Men, he noted, tend to store it in the upper parts of their bodies and directly inside muscle tissue, whereas women store fat in the lower body area. This may lead to a relatively greater diminishment in lung capacity among men, because abdominal muscles are compressed under the weight of stored fat.

Further proof than men are genetically inferior to women. Okay, not really. But this is part of the overall pattern of males being more likely to live shorter and less healthy lives. Those of us with a Y chromosome need to be more diligent in our efforts to remain healthy or we will die younger than our female peers.

But this doesn't get women off the hook, either. Just because being overweight won't kill women as fast as it will men, it will still kill you. LOSE THE WEIGHT NOW!

This site has tons of useful information to help you lose weight and keep it off. Join a gym, buy a jump rope, or start walking. Do whatever you can to burn more calories than you take in. Depriving yourself of a few snacks and desserts is much better than depriving yourself of life.