More body fat can mean more difficulty in losing weight according to a study recently published in the Nature Communication journal. Researchers have found that a protein known as sLR11 is responsible for preventing fat cells from releasing energy and, in doing so, inhibits the body’s ability to lose weight.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge on mice however the sLR11 protein is found within the human body. The study managed to show that, in the case of the mice, whose bodies did not possess the gene required to produce the protein, there was difficulty regarding weight gain and that the body fat that they did have was burned a lot faster.
In the case of the human participants in the study, scientists found that people with higher levels of sLR11 in their bodies also showed a higher amount of total fat mass. Dr. Andrew Whittle, one of the main authors of the study, explained that his team’s findings show why it can be that much harder for people who are overweight to burn weight and lose fat.
What happens is that the protein causes the fat that is already stored inside the person’s body to actually fight against the fat-burning process on a molecular level by resisting it more. It was also found that the process of weight loss depended heavily on the individual’s metabolism as well.
Several recent studies have also shown that weight loss is about more than the calorie intake and that individualized diets may help cater to overweight patients’ health issues more accurately. This most recent research also supports this consensus, in the sense that scientists have found that certain weight loss procedures worked for some individuals but did not help others.
For example, in some cases, a 24 hour long fast helped some individuals lose weight as in made their metabolism speed up and burn the fat a lot faster. But for other participants the metabolic rate slowed down when they fasted, indicating that in some cases, eating less means that people also burn less fat.
Researchers working on the study have stated that the findings help confirm even further that weight loss is more complex than previously thought and that monitoring individual diets and calorie intakes is not always enough to help people lose the extra pounds. The study has also indicated that once weight is gained it is important to try to lose it as fast as possible in order to prevent physiological changes from occurring in the body, changes such as the secretion of the sLR11 protein.
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