Big Belly vs. Thunder Thighs: Study Shows Which Poses Bigger Health Risks

(CBS) What do you call spending two months scarfing down ice cream and candy bars?

At the Mayo Clinic, they call it science.

In a study aimed at finding out how body fat accumulates, scientists at the clinic recruited 28 volunteers to spend eight weeks eating pretty much anything and everything they wanted to. By the end of the gorgefest experiment, the volunteers had gained, on average, 5.5 pounds of fat on the upper body and 3.3 pounds of fat on the lower body.

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The two fatty areas turned out to have just the opposite effect on the risk for metabolic diseases like diabetes. Upper body (abdominal) fat seemed to heighten the risk while lower body (thigh) fat seemed to lower the risk.

"The cellular mechanisms are different," study author Dr. Michael Jensen, an endocrinologist at the clinic, said in a written statement. "The accumulation of abdominal fat happens largely by individual cells expanding in size, while the fat gain in the femoral or lower body, it's the number of fat cells that increases. So, different mechanism, different impact."

Once the volunteers stopped eating, they quickly lost the weight, Jensen - an expert on the risks associated with belly fat - told Reuters.

Thinking maybe you'll be picked for a similar study?

Fat chance.

MORE HEALTH CONTENT FROM CBS NEWS: