While resting, black women burn calories slower than white women, study reveals

Jet, March 24, 1997

A study in a recent issue of Obesity Research says that heavyset Black women burn fewer calories when at rest than White women.

This finding may explain why Black women sometimes have a tougher time losing weight. They also tend to be heavier, overall, than White women, USA Today reported.

Nationally about 52 percent of Black women are overweight compared with 33 percent of White women.

This high rate of obesity in Black women has been contributed to lifestyle differences such as diet and less cultural preoccupation with thinness. However, experts have wondered for years if biological factors are at work, lead author Gary Foster, clinical director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, notes.

In the study, researchers explored the resting metabolic rate of 122 obese White women and 44 obese Black women. They discovered that Black women burn an average of 1,638 calories a day at rest. White women burn 1,731 calories.

Black men were not studied because similar numbers of Black and White men are obese.