A low-calorie diet causes different metabolic effects in women than in men, a new study on diabetes, obesity and metabolism suggests. In the study of more than 2,000 overweight patients with prediabetes who were on a low-calorie diet for 8 weeks, men lost significantly more body weight than women, and they had greater reductions in a metabolic syndrome score, a diabetes indicator, fat mass and heart rate. Women had greater reductions in HDL cholesterol, hip circumference, lean body mass (or lean body mass), and pulse pressure than men.
“Despite adjusting for differences in weight loss, it appears that men benefit more from the intervention than women. Whether gender differences persist in the long term and whether we should design different interventions depending on gender will be interesting to follow," said the study's lead author. “However, the 8-week low-energy diet in subjects with pre-diabetes resulted in the first 10% weight loss needed to achieve significant metabolic improvement in the first phase of a diabetes prevention program.”
