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Posted on May 05, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Obesity – which can provide a major obstacle for anti-ageing medicine – is 'dictated' from adolescence onwards, according to a new Swedish study.
Obesity – which can provide a major obstacle for anti-ageing medicine – is 'dictated' from adolescence onwards, according to a new Swedish study.
Dr Kirsty Spalding led a team of researchers at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute in a study focused on adipocyte fat cells, concluding that for older people no amount of dieting can change the amount of fat cells in their stomach.
Testing several hundred children as well as a whole range of lean and obese adults, the study found that at younger ages the fat cell count can go up and down, before stabilising post-adolescence and becoming very difficult to shift.
The neurobiologist said: "It explains why it's so difficult to lose weight and to keep it off - those fat cells aren't going anywhere, and they're crying out for more."
Some experts have, however, challenged the study's conclusions, claiming that dieting is by no means futile.
Cambridge University's Professor Stephen O'Rahilly, countered: "We know that, sitting in adult fat tissue, are lots of cells that don't contain fat, but are capable of doing so if the nutritional conditions are right.
"They can almost certainly do so without dividing and therefore would not be 'counted' using this technique. I think it is premature to conclude that, by the time we are adolescents, the 'game is up' in terms of the number of fat cells we can possess."
