Women may reap less benefits from exercising says CU
- The latest research suggests exercise is not equally effective among the sexes
- A clear difference between the two genders was established in a trial on mice
- Male rats who exercised ate less and gained less weight than sedentary peers
- But the exercising females did not cut their diet – and weighed just the same
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Women may reap less benefits from going to the gym than men, if new research is to be believed.
The controversial study suggests that exercise is not equally effective among the sexes – and only helps men lose weight.
A clear difference between the two genders in how they respond to working out was established in a trial on mice.
Colorado University researchers said brains are hard-wired differently, triggering separate reactions in men and women.
Exercise is widely known to suppress the appetite, helping to prevent weight gain. But this only rang true in the male mice, showing it to have no effect on dulling the urge to eat women.
They hinted the findings, which are in huge contrast to medical knowledge, could trigger gender-specific exercise routines in the future to help them shed the pounds.
The controversial study suggests that exercise is not equally effective among the sexes – and only helps men lose weight
‘Unacceptable’
Study author Rebecca Foright said: ‘It’s unacceptable to simply assume females will respond to interventions in the same manner as males.’
In experiments there was a large difference between male and female rats fed a high fat diet – half of which were then trained to run on a treadmill.
After a total of 10 weeks, the male rats who exercised ate less food and gained less weight than their sedentary peers.
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But the exercising females did not reduce their consumption – and weighed just the same as their inactive counterparts at the end.
When the study was repeated in males fed a low fat diet the impact of exercise on body weight was evident even sooner.
What other research has shown
WOMEN ARE WALKING LESS THAN MEN
Women are risking their health by walking around 1,000 fewer steps every day than men, said Stanford University experts last week.
Child care, housework and embarrassment have been blamed for women failing to exercise in Britain.
Most people with tracking devices such as Fitbits set themselves a daily target of 10,000 steps, but women achieve less than half of this.
A study using smartphone ‘accelerometers’ that automatically record stepping motions found that women manage only 4,908 steps on average a day, while men rack up 5,982.
Other research has shown that just a single bout of exercise leads to an increase of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in male rodents.
This chemical stores itself in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain responsible for regulating how much food we eat.
IL-6 is produced by muscle cells during acute bouts of strenuous exercise, and it may also be produced in the brain with exercise.
Studies have shown it could enhance the beneficial effects of exercise on body weight by suppressing hunger.
Dispelled a theory
But the new study, to be presented this week at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, dispelled that theory.
The team of researchers found exercise-trained male rats had decreased levels of IL-6 in their hypothalamus – but the opposite effect on females.
The findings appear to confirm there are physiological gender differences in the hormonal signals that influence appetite.
But more studies are needed to understand the sex-specific differences of exercise, the researchers added.
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