Research claims African Caribbean women must do more to shed pounds
Fit friends Singer Kelly Rowland and Hollywood fitness trainer Jeanette Jenkins
WITH CHRISTMAS now out of the way, gyms across the country will be bracing themselves for the rush of people hoping to trim off the extra calories gained over the festive period.
But if new research is to be believed, black women have to eat fewer calories and take more excerise to lose the same amount of weight as their white counterparts.
In the report, published in the December 20 issue of International Journal of Obesity, James DeLany, an associate professor in the division of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said black women having slower metabolic rates, which decreased their daily energy burn.
“At first, it was thought that perhaps the African American women didn’t adhere as closely to their calorie prescriptions or that the interventions were not culturally sensitive,” Dr James DeLany explained.
“But even in research projects that were designed to address those possibilities, the difference in weight loss remained.”
To reach this conclusion, 66 white and 69 black women were placed on the same calorie-restricted diet of an average of 1,800 calories a day for six months. They also were assigned the same exercise schedule.
The study found that black women on average lost seven pounds less than Caucasian women on the same diet.
Dr Mitch Roslin, chief of bariatric surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, agreed there were racial and genetic differences in obesity, which had been backed up by previous studies.
“These things are real. However, this study advances our understanding by ruling out other explanations.
“It's not just related to socioeconomic class or access to care or environmental situations.”
Clara Mosha, a 46-year-old personal trainer and health coach from south London, said the findings were no excuse for women to let themselves go.
She said: “In my experience, this is very general and not specific to any ethnicity, but as you get older your metabolism slows down. In my 20s, I could eat anything and I had a lean body.”
The black community is prone to lifestyle diseases such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and stroke, which have been linked to our type of diets.
Mosha added: “Our food has a lot of carbohydrates and the way we cook it, so we buy it fresh produce and then once cooked they lose all their nutrients.”
Statistics from the NHS Information Centre UK claim that 38 per cent of Black African women were obese, along with 32 per cent of Black Caribbean women.
Dr Jude Oben, a liver specialist at St Thomas Hospital said: “My reading of the research by is that clinicians and patients need to be aware that African-American patients have a lower resting metabolic rate and a lower total daily energy requirement.
"Therefore, if you are trying to downsize a group of patients, one half of whom are African-Americans and the other Caucasian, you need to give the African American population a lower daily energy target than the Caucasian population to achieve the same weight loss you need.
"If you don’t do this, your African American population will lose less weight than the Caucasian population, as their energy requirement per day is lower than that of the Caucasian population."
As a result of this, Mosha advised her clients wanting to improve their lifestyle, whether it is losing weight, increasing fitness or energy levels, that balancing exercise with a good diet was essential in order to lead a healthy lifestyle.
“You can improve your metabolism through exercise and the activity that you do. Mine is higher now than it was in my 20s, as I take my health seriously," she said.
“Embrace a [healthy diet] as part of your my lifestyle and take care of yourself.”
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/harder-black-women-lose-weight-reveals-new-study
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