Weight loss 'has cellular benefits for body'

LOSING excess weight has hidden bonuses - including helping to clear out damaged and ageing cells, scientists have discovered.

- By Jane Kirby

The first highly detailed analysis of such beneficial effects on fat tissue could also inform new type 2 diabetes therapies, they said.

Numerous benefits of slimming down were identified, including the increased metabolism of harmful fats.

The study of 70 people compared samples of fat tissue from those at a healthy weight with samples from people with severe obesity, defined by a BMI over 35, who later had bariatric weight loss surgery.

Samples were taken from the second group during the operation and more than five months later, at which point they had lost nearly four stone on average.