Exercise - Fitness Mantra : A Health and Fitness Blog

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

While not a very busy week health-news wise there were four obesity-related news items. Normally that would not be surprising because each week, researchers come up with newly discovered direct consequences of being overweight (like this week’s story about how Asthma Takes Tougher Toll on the Obese). But there are also two items that, while they are related to obesity, do not describe a direct consequence of the excess weight itself but rather of, what I can only describe as, its “side-effects”.

First Overweight people get less out of exercise describes how among 687 adults who embarked on a 12-week regimen of strength training, although all participants gained strength and muscle, the overweight/obese volunteers gained 4-17% less than their normal-weight co-participants. In a strong co-relation with the earlier post that taled about how obesity could be a function of genetics, researhers claimed that the differences in the results could also be genetic:

“People with overweight and obesity have alterations in skeletal muscle structure and function compared to those who are normal weight that could also contribute to variability in the exercise response,” they wrote.

Bathroom Scale The story above could still be be forgiven for being somewhat partially due to the actual excess weight itself (although it’s not an illness/ disability or disease that resulted). But, the second story I want to highlight has more to do with self-perception and acceptance (a more mental demand) than the excess weight. Severely Obese Women More Likely to Skip Cancer Scans says the Forbes article, even though obese women are more likely to be diagnosed with this deadly disease. Almost a year ago, news surfaced that Americans are too fat for X-Rays, and while one could be forgiven for assuming that there could be a similar reason preventing obese women from getting scans, it turns out that may not be the whole story:

Jeanne Ferrante, from New Jersey Medical School, plans to survey doctors to find out whether there are barriers that prevent severely obese women from being screened for cancer, such as a lack of proper equipment to examine severely obese patients.

She is also gathering information from patient focus groups, and has found that severely obese women feel embarrassed because of their weight.

“They don’t like to be examined. They don’t like to wear two gowns or have a scale inadequate to weigh them,” Ferrante said in a prepared statement.

Surely the second reason is far more serious.

People embarrassed to take their t-shirts off at the beach is one thing. Avoiding potentially life-saving scans because of a poor body-image and being conscious of one’s excess weight is simply way too dangerous. It could turn out that the mental effects of obesity might be as equally devastating as the physical!
Read on for more health and fitness stories from this week:

Snacking can be good for the elderly: Researchers say such snacking is OK - in fact, regular nibbling can be good for older people.
Coffee may cut risk of gout, study finds: If men ever needed a reason to justify that extra cup of coffee, here it is: four or more cups of coffee a day appear to reduce the risk of gout, Canadian researchers said on Friday.
Overweight people get less out of exercise: Overweight and obese people get less out of resistance training than leaner people do, researchers said on Friday in a study that suggests the overweight may have to try harder to get results.
How to feed and fuel young athletes: Parents typically love the attention to fitness that stems from their children playing sports, but they’re often uncertain about the best way to provide fuel and fluid for their young athletes.
Lift weights, stay young: Resistance training turns back the clock - literally making muscles younger through regular workouts, new research by an Australian scientist shows.
High-salt diet link to ulcer risk: The bug that causes stomach ulcers may be more likely to cause disease when exposed to high concentrations of salt, a US team of researchers has said.
For This Week, a Simple Challenge: Step It Up, and Add Some Calcium: Staying active can sometimes take creativity.
Asthma Takes Tougher Toll on the Obese: Severe, persistent asthma is more likely to strike obese individuals than people who are not overweight, U.S. researchers report.
Severely Obese Women More Likely to Skip Cancer Scans: Severely obese woman are more likely than other women to skip cancer screenings, even though being severely obese increases their risk of developing and dying of cancer.
Big trouble in little Puerto Rico: Obese kids: Studies show 26 percent of youngsters in Puerto Rico are obese, worse than on the U.S. mainland where the figure is estimated to be 18 percent.
Pre-birth apples ‘benefit babies’: Children of mothers who eat plenty of apples during pregnancy are less likely to develop asthma, research suggests.

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Have a great weekend!

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On average I bookmark about 25 interesting health and fitness related articles each week and in most cases I skim through the article and can grasp the gist of it. This week’s highlighted article, however, was an exception. I actually read through it twice to understand the implications and while many of the theories expounded seemed to make sense and I had read similar articles in the past that hinted at this conclusion, it was still a tough pill to swallow and see more conclusive evidence: being obese or overweight could be a purely inherited condition.

Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside is the attention-grabbing New York Times article I speak of. It describes the experiments conducted by Dr. Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University who had set out in 1959 to find out more about the effects of weight loss on obese. I urge you to read the 2-page article completely so you can understand how Dr. Hirsch came to this startling conclusion: As the obese lost weight, their metabolism also started to slow and their mental outlook became similar to that of normal people who were suddenly starved.:

The Rockefeller researchers explained their observations in one of their papers: “It is entirely possible that weight reduction, instead of resulting in a normal state for obese patients, results in an abnormal state resembling that of starved non-obese individuals.”

But if you thought that the result was as simple as that and once people got fat they could almost ever lose that weight again, then you are in for more food for thought: the reverse was true too! Thin people who gained weight by unnaturally compulsive eating spiked their metabolism (by almost 50%) to the point where it became really difficult to keep the weight on! After the study this second group of (naturally thin) people had no difficulty shedding the weight they gained during the study.

Then in the 1980s, Dr. Albert Stunkard of the University of Pennsylvania performed a study that showed that adopted children assumed a particular body-type and weight at adulthood that had more to do with who their biological parents were than with their eventual adoptive environment or even what they ate during their childhood growing up! The startling result is succinctly summed up as: 80 percent of the offspring of two obese parents become obese, as compared with no more than 14 percent of the offspring of two parents of normal weight.

Think it’s easy for that fat person to lose weight? Just eat less and exercise more, you say? Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at the Rockefeller University has this to say about the matter:

“The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.”

Gina Kolata is the author of Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss-and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, an eye-opening book that describes the futility of overthinking weight-loss and why, after a certain point, pure genetics could take over what you will finally weigh. The studies above and more are included in her book which talks about issues at the very core of the multi-billion-dollar weight-loss industry in the United States and the rest of the world.

Fat Chance is an article that reviews the book and offers highlights from it. You can read the first chapter of Rethinking Thin on the New York Times website or buy the book from Amazon.

So what does this mean for the millions of people trying to lose weight? Just sit back on the couch, tear open that chips-packet and blame your parents? Not a chance - that will only make a bad situation worse. The rules of calorie balance apply to everyone and they can lose weight using that very same regimen of eating less than they expend and including a well-balanced exercise program.

Granted, this entire blog post tells us it’s going to be more difficult for them to keep the weight off, but then isn’t that what mental-discipline is all about?

On to the week’s top health and fitness stories:

One town proves fighting obesity takes a village: Five years ago, Tufts University enlisted the entire city of Somerville, Mass. to attack childhood obesity, not just in schools, but on every front.
Self-esteem tied to body image for most teens: The happier most adolescents are with their bodies, the more they like themselves, a new study shows.
Chocolate conundrum: Is it good to indulge?: How do we reconcile boosting chocolate’s antioxidants, which supposedly help lower risk of heart disease and cancer, with possible weight gain, which may increase the risk of these diseases?
Milk campaign under fire ending: An ad campaign that suggested milk can help people lose weight is ending, the Federal Trade Commission told a doctors’ group that had complained.
Feeling down? Refuel with tofu and turkey: Are your meals giving you the most bang for your bite?
Preschool girls more fat than boys: As every Western nation struggles with child obesity, the Swedes are puzzled by an unusual blip in the data: Why are little girls more likely to be fat than little boys?
Germany launches obesity campaign: The German government is launching an action plan to cut obesity rates sharply by 2020.
100% Juice May Not Boost Kids’ Weight: Drinking 100 percent juice may not make children more likely to be overweight, a new study shows.
Pediatricians Not Tracking Kids’ BMI: Despite recommendations that came out years ago, two new studies suggest that many pediatricians are failing to properly track the body weight of their young patients.
Cut Your Diet’s ‘Energy Density’ and Lose Weight: Want to lose weight? Focus on reducing the “energy density” of your diet, a new study suggests.
Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside: “The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.”
New diet winners: We rate the diet books and plans. Plus: 8 strategies that work: The basic formula for losing weight has not changed: Consume fewer calories than you burn-about 500 fewer every day, to lose about a pound a week.
The Skinny on Getting Thin: Gina Kolata on ‘Rethinking Thin’: In a new book, journalist Gina Kolata looks at America’s obsession with dieting and the science behind our frequent weight-loss failures.
Study: Dieters slather on the optimism: When it comes to losing weight, people have high hopes: 41% are trying now to trim down, and they’d like to lose 37 pounds, a poll reported Monday.
Best and worst diet strategies: You’ve done the cabbage-soup diet, the grapefruit regimen, even the ice-cream plan. Still those stubborn excess pounds taunt away every time you pass a mirror.
Fathers responsible for fat children: Australia study: Fathers who play less of a role in child rearing are more likely to have overweight or obese offspring, Australian researchers said.
Coffee can be good for you, experts say: Drinking coffee can help ward off type 2 diabetes and may even help prevent certain cancers, according to panelists discussing the benefits — and risks — of the beverage at a scientific meeting.
Diabetes prevalence more than doubles in King County: The prevalence of diabetes has about doubled in the state’s most populous county over the last decade, and public health officials believe eating habits are the main culprit.
Cavities increasing in baby teeth: Tooth decay in young children’s baby teeth is on the rise, a worrying trend that signals the preschool crowd is eating too much sugar.
Kids’ comics spread awareness about diabetes: The evil Dr. Diabetes leaps from a hospital window, crashing through the glass, determined to infect anyone in his path with the chronic, debilitating disease from which he takes his name.