WeightControl.com Interview with:
Stéphanie Abo, PhD
Applied Mathematics
University of Waterloo
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Our study examines how men and women process food differently, particularly how each sex responds to a high-carb versus a high-fat diet. Obesity and related conditions, like type 2 diabetes, are major global issues, and nutrition plays a key role in managing these conditions.
Men and women metabolize fats and carbohydrates differently, especially during fasting and exercise. Using a mathematical model and computer simulations, we investigated sex differences in the processing of glucose and fat and identified candidate pathways behind these sex-specific differences. This research can help improve personalized nutrition and diet strategies for both men and women.
WeightControl.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our main findings show that women store more fat during meals but burn significantly more fat than men during fasting. This difference is due to how the liver and fat tissue work in each sex. Women’s livers use more glycerol (a fat byproduct) to make glucose, which provides energy for the body. This happens because women break down about 20% more fat in their fat tissue, as suggested by our model, increasing glycerol levels in the bloodstream for the liver to use.
WeightControl.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Readers should understand that men and women’s metabolisms respond differently to meals after fasting. After an overnight fast, men generally process carbohydrate-rich breakfasts better, while women benefit more from meals higher in fat. This emphasizes the importance of personalized nutrition—it is important to choose a diet that suits your body, and sex is an important factor to consider.
WeightControl.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?
Response: There has historically been less data on women than men, but this is changing. More data is now being collected/reported based on sex, age, ethnicity, and other factors. Moving forward, we plan to develop more nuanced metabolic models that go beyond biological sex, incorporating factors like weight, age, activity level, and menstrual cycle stage to create a more personalized understanding of metabolism.
WeightControl.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Any disclosures?
Response: Computational modeling is becoming increasingly important in medicine. Integrating mathematics into healthcare can help with disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment by simulating biological processes and uncovering their underlying mechanisms. By developing mathematical models from existing data, we can rapidly test various hypotheses and adjust experiments in ways that would be impractical with human subjects.
Citation:
Stéphanie M.C. Abo, Anita T. Layton,
Modeling sex-specific whole-body metabolic responses to feeding and fasting,
Computers in Biology and Medicine,
Volume 181, 2024,109024, ISSN 0010-4825,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.109024
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Last Updated on October 13, 2024 by weightcontrol