Extremely overweight people often complain that it is physically hard to move. Working with animals, scientists may have found a clue to explain that finding. Normal weight mice show changes in the concentration of a particular muscle protein when they're fitted with heavy vests. The increase in troponin T allows muscles to contract more strongly.
In obese mice, the gene for troponin T seemed to malfunction, and levels of muscle proteins involved in contraction were not increased. This relative weakness can make moving more difficult, eventually leading to animals cannot move at all.
The bigger mystery, how muscles know how much you weigh and adjust their composition accordingly is still unsolved. Troponin T may be one part of the puzzle, but clearly not the only one.
Although this research was performed in animals, it may have implications for humans. Extremely overweight people may do better initially with exercises that do not require them to bear their whole weight, such as swimming, when compared to running.
NY Times Article
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