Men, women differ metabolically

Obesity does not strain men’s and women’s bodies in the same way, according to new research headed to Europe’s largest obesity meeting in May. (eurekalert.org) Researchers at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey, analyzed 1,134 adults with obesity treated at the university’s internal medicine obesity clinic in 2024 and 2025: 886 women with an average age of 45 and 248 men with an average age of 41. (eurekalert.org) The team reported that men were more likely to show visceral fat, the deep abdominal fat packed around organs, along with higher liver enzymes that can signal liver stress or damage. Women were more likely to show systemic inflammation and a less healthy blood-fat pattern, including higher cholesterol. (eurekalert.org) Doctors already know that obesity is not just extra weight on a scale; it also changes where fat is stored, how the liver handles fuel, and how strongly the immune system stays switched on. The new analysis sorts those effects by sex instead of treating obesity as one uniform condition. (eurekalert.org; pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) That comes as obesity keeps rising worldwide. The World Health Organization said in its December 2025 fact sheet that 890 million adults were living with obesity in 2022, equal to 16% of adults globally, or about 1 in 8 people. (who.int) The findings are scheduled for presentation at the 33rd European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey, from May 12 to May 15, 2026. Conference presentations can point to important patterns, but they are often released before full peer-reviewed publication. (eco2026.org; easo.org) The researchers said all participants had physical measurements and blood testing, including body mass index, blood pressure, fasting glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Those markers are standard ways to track diabetes and heart-disease risk. (eurekalert.org) Earlier reviews have found that men more often develop central, or “android,” obesity, while women more often store more fat under the skin in the hips and thighs, a pattern shaped in part by sex hormones and immune differences. The new report suggests that those older biological patterns still show up in today’s clinic data, but with different warning signs for each sex. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Lead author Dr. Zeynep Pekel said the results support more tailored care for people with obesity rather than assuming the same risks show up in everyone. The next test will be whether larger studies and peer-reviewed papers confirm the same split between abdominal fat and liver stress in men and inflammation and cholesterol problems in women. (eurekalert.org)