A team of researchers in Japan has discovered a key biological reason that may help explain why women tend to burn more calories from fat than men, a finding that could help pave the way for new treatments for obesity and related diseases.

The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, was led by researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo in collaboration with the University of Tokyo.

While men typically have a high proportion of muscle that helps them burn more calories in total, recent studies have shown that women burn more calories from fat specifically. For this study, the team focused on brown adipose tissue (known as BAT), a special type of fat in the body that burns energy to produce heat. Previous studies have shown that women have more active BAT than men and are less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes or other metabolic disorders. But until now, the reason behind this difference was unclear.