Big-bottomed women, take heart. Fat that settles around the thighs and buttocks may be better for you than a tummy tyre, experts say. In fact, a new review of the data on the subject suggests it may even help protect your health.
“It is the protective role of lower body, that is, gluteofemoral fat that is striking,” wrote a team of British researchers in the Jan. 12 online edition of the International Journal of Obesity. “The protective properties of the lower-body fat depot have been confirmed in many studies conducted in subjects with a wide range of age, BMI and co-morbidities,” they added.
In contrast, people with more tummy fat relative to lower-body fat -- often measured by waist-to-hip ratio -- are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other conditions related to obesity.
In fact, this measurement is even more predictive of heart disease than body mass index (BMI) alone, according to researchers at the University of Oxford.
The purpose of fat in general is to store energy for later use, a function more helpful in prehistoric times when feast-or-famine conditions reigned than in the current couch-potato, potato-chip era.
Typically, the “spare tyre” of fat around the tummy can accumulate more easily than hind-quarters (gluteofemoral) fat, but as dieters know, it can also be metabolized away more quickly than fat around the bottom.
On the other hand, fat settling around the derriere may be healthier than abdominal fat, because it helps lower levels of immune-system cells called cytokines, which promote inflammation, the experts said.
Inflammation is a major factor implicated in many diseases, particularly heart disease.
So while lower-body fat is harder to put on and take off, it doesn’t release harmful cytokines, the researchers concluded.
Healthy people who are thick around the backside -- and these tend to be women -- also tend to have lower cholesterol, lower blood glucose levels and increased leptin levels than people who pack on weight around the abdomen, the British reviewers contend. Leptin is a hormone involved in regulating energy intake and expenditure.
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