Approved Research

Ethnic body composition differences and the impact of change on morbidity and mortality

Lay summary

New diet and medicine treatments for weight loss are available. Losing excess body fat could help prevent or manage disease but concern exists that muscle is lost at the same time. Losing too much muscle could affect overall health, and reduce quality of life and independence by accelerating frailty. Weight regain after treatment is an additional problem because more body fat is gained compared to muscle. Weight fluctuations could affect health longer term, particularly for ethnic groups with different body compositions such as South Asian people.

This project seeks, over the next two years, to investigate what differences exist in body composition between ethnicities. It also seeks to explore how differences in body composition can affect health outcomes long term. This project will also investigate how bodyweight changes affect the body longer term and if sex or ethnicity changes how the body reacts to weight loss or gain. This is relevant for public health because seven out of ten people live overweight and obesity in the UK and could be eligible for weight loss treatment. Findings from this project could help explain how body weight and body composition changes affect health in different populations living in the UK.