* How lack of sleep can make you fat* Smelling food may make you fatter, says science* How cortisol makes you fat – and how to beat it123rf Changes in hormones mean an increase of abdominal fat around the centre of your body becomes more obvious in your 40s. What they call "android fat distribution" or the middle-age spread is lurking right around the corner. The decline of the manly hormone testosterone can also see men gain fat more easily and, in the same way women experience changes in body composition, fat can abandon different areas of the body and assemble around the trunk. A paper by Concordia University found that low testosterone levels can lead to changes in fat cells in the lower body, but not in the upper body – researchers found that men with abnormal testosterone stored more fat in the thighs, in comparison to those with normal levels. One point noted in our spotlight on 20-somethings was that less muscle mass equals more fat storage.

Source: Stuff January 07, 2020 15:56 UTC