The observational study, funded by Elizabeth Blackwell Institute, and led by researchers from the University of Bristol, was published today [9 September] in PLoS Medicine.
More than 3,200 young people in Bristol’s Children of the 90s birth cohort study were measured repeatedly for levels of body fat and lean mass using a body scanning device. These scans were performed four times across participants’ lives, when they were children, adolescents, and young adults (at ages 10, 13, 18 and 25 years).
The findings showed that gaining fat mass was strongly and consistently related to poorer metabolic health in young adulthood, as indicated, for example, by higher levels of harmful cholesterol. These effects were much larger (often about 5-times larger) than any beneficial effect of gaining muscle. Where there were benefits of gaining muscle, these were specific to gains that had occurred in adolescence – suggesting that this early stage of life is a key window for promoting muscle gain and reaping its benefits.
Dr Joshua Bell, senior research associate in epidemiology and lead author of the report, said: “We knew that fat gain is harmful for health, but we didn’t know whether gaining muscle could really improve health and help prevent heart disease. We wanted to put those benefits in context."
Dr Bell added: “Fat loss is difficult, but that does seem to be where the greatest health benefits lie. We need to double down on preventing fat gain and supporting people in losing fat and keeping it off.
Read the full story on the University of Bristol website.
Paper
'Body muscle gain and markers of cardiovascular disease susceptibility in young adulthood: A cohort study' by Joshua A. Bell, Kaitlin H. Wade, Linda M. O’Keeffe, David Carslake, Emma E. Vincent, Michael V. Holmes, Nicholas J. Timpson and George Davey Smith in PLoS Medicine