Not All Obese People Develop Health Problems Linked to Excess Weight

Obesity can cause a range of health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Now, though, researchers have found that obesity doesn't always go hand in hand with these problems. It turns out that not all obese individuals develop metabolic problems linked to excess weight.

The researchers examined 20 obese participants who were asked to gain about 15 pounds over the course of several months in order to see how the extra pounds affected their metabolic functions. The goal was to have the volunteers consume 1,000 extra calories each day until they gained 6 percent of his or her body weight.

In this latest study, the researchers found that a subset of people did not have common metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity, such as insulin resistance and abnormal blood lipids. Not only that, but these obese individuals didn't gain these metabolic problems even after they gained more weight.

"This research demonstrates that some obese people are protected from the adverse metabolic effects of moderate weight gain, whereas others are predisposed to develop these problems," said Samuel Klein, the senior investigator of the new study, in a news release. "This observation is important clinically because about 25 percent of obese people do not have metabolic complications. Our data shows that these people remain metabolically normal even after they gain addition weight."

The researchers found that people with normal metabolism despite their obesity expressed more genes that regulate fat production and accumulation. The activity of these genes increased even more when the metabolically normal people gained weight, which wasn't true for people with abnormal metabolism.

"These results suggest that the ability of body fat to expand and increase in a healthy way may protect some people from the metabolic problems associated with obesity and weight gain," said Klein.

The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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