According to a recent study, people with the lowest BMI were 23% less physically active and ate 12% fewer calories than others.
What is the secret of thin people? According to a study, the answer is quite simple: you eat less. In fact, Chinese researchers are 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. They also eat less food. These findings were published July 14 in the journal Cell Metabolism.
“We expected these people to be really active and have a high activity metabolism that corresponds to a high food intake,” 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 very different is going on. They had lower food intake and activity levels and surprisingly higher than expected metabolic rates associated with high thyroid hormone levels.”
Less physical activity
This study recruited 173 subjects with a normal BMI and 150 with a BMI less than 18.5. All participants were observed for two weeks. Their food intake and physical activity were measured. As a disadvantage, the researchers considered neither the exact food intake nor 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 activity levels, their heart health markers, including cholesterol and blood pressure, were very good,” says first author Sumei Hu from the University of Technology and Commerce of China, Beijing. Researchers now want to conduct further studies to examine genetic differences between people of different weights. “The next step is to better understand the phenotype itself and the mechanisms that produce it,” emphasizes Professor Speakman.