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FAT nuggets
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Exercise and dieting together have a better effect on obese people.
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WHY DO so many people put on weight in their late twenties? The truth is twenty-somethings eat less than teens, but they exercise even lesser. And it doesn't take much to put on the pounds. An extra 25 gm slice of bread everyday is all it takes to put on five kg in a year.
Fat is frighteningly easy to put on, but that does not make it any less dangerous. Obesity is second only to smoking as a preventable risk factor for disease. It increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, hypertension, high blood cholesterol and a few cancers.
Depressed already? Look at the brighter side. Isn't it nice to know you can prevent so many diseases by simply going for a walk?
We all know the cure for obesity: eat less and exercise more. But the body does not lose fat without a fight. Eat less, and it compensates by slowing down metabolism and burning fat more slowly.
Exercise, and you feel hungry. If you don't watch out, your body will easily thwart what's good for it.
The best cure for obesity is prevention because adults struggle to lose weight. Obese kids usually grow up to be fat teens and even fatter adults. Make sure your children play. You would never let your children sacrifice homework for play, so do not force the converse on them.
Energy usage
Understand how the body uses energy. Sixty per cent of calorie use happens at rest, and it is difficult to force a big increase in it. Ten per cent of calorie intake goes towards eating, digestion, assimilation, transport and storage of nutrients. This too is largely unmodifiable, although some claim exercising after meals burns more calories in this phase.
Physical activity usually constitutes only 30 per cent of energy expenditure. But it is the part that is largely in your hands. Exercise also increases the number of calories the body uses at rest — not by much, but enough to make the difference for an obese person. If you are also on a diet, the increased resting metabolic rate offsets somewhat the decline in metabolic rate caused by restricting food intake. Simply put, exercise and dieting have an effect that is greater than the sum of their parts.
Dispelling myths
Physical activity does not make the obese eat more in the long term. Research in the 1980s on a group of obese persons found that regular exercise did not produce a compensatory increase in food intake.
Exercise reduces body fat, but you cannot target a particular body part for fat reduction. Doing a gazillion ab crunches will not selectively burn off the beer belly.
However, nature has the last word on this. ANY exercise will preferably burn abdominal fat because it is more sensitive to the fat-melting effects of adrenaline released during exercise.
RAJIV. M
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