Does My Bum Look Big In This?

By WLR's Trudi Maples

According to new research by Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos of Oxford University, those of us with a big bum and a pear shaped body could be fighting off serious diseases better than those who are stick thin or have apple shaped bodies.

Dr Manolopoulos and his team explain that the body uses fat to store energy in the form of fatty acids to be released when needed like after heavy exercise etc. Upper and lower body fats both do this but fatty acids stored in the thigh and bum area are stored longer term so aren’t released as often. Fat around the thighs and hips is harder to shift than fat around the tummy area which doesn’t sound ideal. However, this is actually beneficial because slower burning hip and thigh fat releases more helpful hormones like adiponectin – a hormone that protects the arteries and promotes better blood sugar control.

In contrast, fatty acids in the upper body are released more quickly. Therefore more fat in the upper body results in more fatty acids being released. These can then get deposited around organs such as the liver and heart, a problem associated with diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Furthermore, fat that is broken down quickly releases a lot of cytokines which can trigger inflammation in the body – also linked to diabetes and heart disease.

That said, this new research doesn’t give us carte blanche to go ahead and forget trying to keep our weight down and eating healthily. Dr Manolopoulos said:

‘The idea that body fat distribution is important to health has been known for some time. However, it is only very recently that thigh fat and a larger hip circumference have been show to promote health, that lower body fat is protective by itself.’

He went on to say,

‘The protective effect is independent of weight. However, if you put on weight, thigh circumference will increase but your waist circumference will also increase, which over-rides the protective effect. Control of body weight is still the best way to stay healthy, and the advice remains the same: it is important to eat less and exercise more.’

Basically, carry on losing and aiming to get to your goal weight but, when you look in the mirror and see a pear shape or your partner tells you that your bum does look big in something, it’s not all bad.