Couldn't it possibly be natural for women to be fatter than men ? Women bear children - pregnancy and lactation might demand greater fat reserves than needed for men. What is the natural fatness for men ? Probably it would have been evolutionary advantageous for hunter-gatherers to be as fat as possible - as long it didn't impair them in other ways (hunting, fighting , fleeing from predators etc). Fatness being an insurance against unpredictable famine, and disease. How fat were paleolitic hunter gatherers? Some (modern) hunter-gatheres seem to be very lean - like the Australian Aboriginals and the african bushmen. However this might just reflect that they live in marginal environments with suboptimal foodresources. Some paleolithic people must have lived in areas with generous food- resources: meat(fat), fish , nuts , fruit,vegetables - more like the american indians , and the eskimos - how fat were they ? Esben