Ana Antón Solanas, a research assistant in the Dietetics and Diet Therapy Unit of the University of Navarra, hopes to tailor diet and exercise regimes to women with specific types of obesity. She has received a fellowship from The Danone Institute to investigate the effects of a hypocaloric diet and physical training in the metabolic and hormonal response in a group of obese women.
The women in the study have a genetic difference (a Gln27Glu polymorphism in the beta2adrenergic receptor) that endows them with a greater body mass index despite exercising on a regular basis. Solanas research does not provide an excuse for obesity. “Our goal consists precisely in understanding the reason that women with this trait are more resistant to weight loss,” she says.
The ultimate aim of the research is to understand the characteristics of obesity that vary depending on such genetic polymorphisms and to develop individualized treatments for each obesity type.
“In the future we will be able to create diets and exercise regimens which are genetically adjusted to the individual person,” she adds.