Severely obese people are programmed for fat, says a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
In studying the muscles of lean and obese people, Duke University Medical Center researchers found muscles of the obese were laced with fat and burned fat 43 percent slower that those of the lean patients. They also found that muscle “bears a metabolic memory of obesity,” which makes it difficult to maintain sustained weight loss, despite diligent calorie-cutting efforts.
The good news: Exercise can override this “aberrant metabolic” programming. Specifically, exercise can reverse the elevation of an enzyme linked with obesity when present in high amounts.
“While these findings may be somewhat discouraging for those wishing to reverse obesity through dietary interventions, they also highlight the importance of exercise,” says the medical center’s Deborah Muoio, who authored the study.
