This study published in the journal Molecular Metabolism was conducted by researchers from Aberdeen University in Cambridge in Great Britain and Michigan in the United States.
According to the researchers, a hormone present in the brain in women would explain the more difficult weight loss in the latter than in men, but also their faster weight gain. Hey ladies, that explains it all!
These brain hormones called pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) which would be responsible among other things for the regulation of our appetite do not act in the same way in men and women. One of the researchers says:“We discovered that a region of the brain responsible not only for appetite, but for the way calories are going to be spent behaves differently in women and in men. »
For this study, scientists sought to make mice lose weight using these hormones. They managed to make obese male mice who ate a lot lose weight. However, in the female mouse, the experiment did not work. Although they were able to moderate their appetite, this had no effect on the rodent's energy expenditure and physical activity.
From now on, scientists therefore hope to find new treatments to specifically fight against obesity. Disease which would be much more present in women than in men according to the WHO. In France, more than 6.5 million people are considered obese.
