According to a recent study, people with the lowest BMI did 23% less physical activity and consumed 12% fewer calories than others.
What is the secret of thin people? According to one study, the answer is quite simple: they eat less. Indeed, Chinese researchers have been interested in people with a lower body mass index (BMI). They found that these people were less active than those with a BMI in the higher range. In addition, they consume less food. These findings were published in the journal Cell Metabolism the 14th of July.
“We expected these people to be really active and to have high activity metabolic rates corresponding to high dietary intakes,” summarizes corresponding author John Speakman, a professor at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology in China and the University of Aberdeen in the UK. She added, “It turns out something quite different is going on. They had lower food intakes and activity, and surprisingly higher than expected resting metabolic rates linked to high levels of thyroid hormones”.
Less physical activity
As part of this study, 173 people with a normal BMI and 150 with a BMI less than 18.5 were recruited. All participants were followed for two weeks. Their food intake and physical activity were measured. A downside, the researchers did not take into account the precise food intake or the feeling of satiety. Compared to a control group with a normal BMI, the other people ate 12% less food and were significantly less active by 23%. In addition, they had higher resting energy expenditure and thyroid activity.
“Although these very thin people had low levels of activity, their markers of heart health, including cholesterol and blood pressure, were very good,” says first author Sumei Hu from the University of Technology and Commerce in China. Beijing. Researchers now want to do further studies to look at genetic differences between individuals of different weight weights. “The next step is to better understand the phenotype itself and to understand more clearly the mechanisms that generate it”, emphasizes Professor Speakman.
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