Healthy and healthy women tend to burn more fat when exercising

Healthy and healthy women tend to burn more fat when exercising than men, according to a new study from a team of sports nutritionists.

The research, including two new studies from academics led by the University of Bath’s Center for Nutrition, Exercise & Metabolism, analyzed the factors that significantly influenced individuals’ ability to burn body fat. when they were doing sustainability sports.

How the body burns fat is important to all of us for good metabolic health, insulin sensitivity and in reducing the risk of developing Type II diabetes. However, for endurance sports competitions, such as running or cycling, how the body burns fat can make the difference between success and failure.

Previous research from the same team has shown how the body’s carbohydrate stores deplete dramatically during exercise. This means that athletes ’ability to draw into their fat stores to fuel them is critical to their performance.

The first study, published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine & Exercise Therapy, including 73 healthy adults ages 19–63 (41 males; 32 females). It tested the lifestyle and biological properties for optimal fat burning by asking participants to participate in a cycling fitness test and measure key indicators.

Their findings found that women and those who were physically healthy, across the age ranges, burned fat more effectively when exercising.

Second related paper, published in the journal Experimental epistemology, this took a step further to examine what molecular factors in our muscles and fat tension determine how fat is burned. In this experiment the researchers took fat and muscle biopsies from participants to study how differences in the proteins in fat and muscle tension may affect their ability to burn fat. .

He found that the proteins in muscle are involved in the breakdown of stored fat into the least fatty acids, and the proteins involved in transporting the These fatty acids enter the mitochondria in muscle (the powerhouse of cells) regularly linked to an increased ability to burn fat. The molecular factors studied did not explain why females burned more fat than males, however.

Our study found that women are generally more dependent on fat as a fuel source during exercise than men. An understanding of the mechanisms behind these gender differences in fuel consumption may explain why a woman appears to have a metabolic benefit for insulin sensitivity, an important indicator of health. metabolic. “

Ollie Chrzanowski-Smith, Lead Author, University of Bath

The researchers note that the ability to burn fat as a fuel seems to protect against future weight gain, ensuring good weight management. However, they warn that the body’s ability to burn fat should not equal its ability to lose weight. Losing weight is mainly achieved with a lack of energy (ie. Eating fewer calories than we consume). For weight loss, especially where people may be obese, they emphasize the importance of diet and exercise.

Dr Javier Gonzalez, also from Bath University Department of Health, said: “Weight management is very much about energy balance, so to lose weight we need to eat fewer calories than we consume through our resting metabolism and physical activity .However, people with a higher ability to burn fat as fuel appear to be partially protected against future weight gain, which may be related to how fat burning leads to impact on food intake and energy expenditure.

“Ultimately, there is a greater potential for burning fat as a fuel of potential benefits for endurance athletes, by delaying the point in time when they run out of valuable carbohydrate sources. “