                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997              TAG: 9703260071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A12  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

STUDY OF WOMEN FINDS RACE A FACTOR IN OBESITY BLACK FEMALES HAD SLOWER METABOLISM

Whites burned an average of 100 more calories at rest than did blacks.

The fact that nearly half of American black women are overweight, as opposed to a third of white women, has often been attributed to differences in eating and exercise habits and attitudes toward body weight. But a new study published in the journal Obesity Research suggests that the higher rates of obesity among black women may be partly determined by biology.

The study found that on average, black women burn nearly 100 fewer calories than white women do when their bodies are at rest. The difference remained even after adjusting for body weight and muscle mass.

The study was directed by Dr. Gary Foster, clinical director of the weight and eating disorders program at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers measured the resting metabolic rates of 166 overweight women, 44 blacks and 122 whites, with an average weight of 224 pounds. The resting, or basal, metabolic rate reflects the number of calories burned at rest, which typically accounts for about two-thirds of caloric expenditure. The rate at which calories were burned was lower for black women than for white women, with an average difference of nearly 100 calories.

This is not the first time ethnic or racial differences have been found in the way people use calories. It has been known that some ethnic groups, such as the Pima Indians of the Southwest, process calories more slowly than other people and thus are likely to gain weight on an amount of food that keeps others slim. But, Foster emphasized, the new findings do not mean that controlling and losing weight is a hopeless task for people with lower metabolic rates, just that it may require more attention to diet and exercise. Regular aerobic exercise and any activities that increase muscle mass not only use extra calories during exercise, but can also raise the resting metabolic rate.

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by CNB