Posted on 02/04/2005 12:01:42 AM PST by ambrose
Posted on Thu, Jan. 27, 2005
Obese people move around a lot less than thin people, study finds
BY JOHN FAUBER
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE - (KRT) - After electronically monitoring the every movement of a group of self-described couch potatoes around the clock for days, scientists came to this conclusion: Obese people spend a lot more time sitting than thin people.
The finding, which some might find intuitive or even stereotypical, comes after an exhaustive Mayo Clinic study published Friday in the journal Science.
And while the research might reinforce old notions about the nature of obesity, it also throws a wrinkle into the debate, suggesting that biology might determine whether a person is born to fidget or live a more static life.
As it turns out, that propensity to move about or remain seated during the day can have a big impact on the amount of calories a person burns, even if that person is a couch potato.
In Friday's study, which involved 20 sedentary individuals, 10 who were lean and 10 who were mildly obese, the obese subjects sat an average of two hours and 44 minutes more a day than the lean subjects.
That amounts to an extra 350 calories a day, which over the course of a year, could result in more than 30 pounds of weight loss, the authors said.
"We may have a genetic predisposition to be sedentary," said Susan Yanovski, director of the obesity and eating disorders programs at the National Institutes of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study.
However, Yanovski noted it is very unlikely that human genetics has changed in recent years during which obesity has turned into a near epidemic.
"We have to be careful about this idea that your biology is your destiny," she said. "Our genes haven't changed. But 10 years ago, you didn't send an e-mail to the guy next door. You got up and went next door."
The new study offers not just a plausible explanation for why some people become obese, but it used a novel, high-tech measurement system to reach its conclusions.
For nearly 24 hours a day for 10 days, the 20 volunteers in the study, all Rochester, Minn., residents, wore special shorts and tops that were equipped with sensors that monitored body position and motion 120 times a minute. They could take off the devices for a 15-minute daily shower.
The devices were constructed so they could be worn even when the subjects needed to use the bathroom.
Their movements were downloaded each day and a computer program translated their movements into the amount of calories burned, said lead author James Levine, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at Mayo.
"We know that each blip of movement is associated with this amount of calories," Levine said. "This gives us a covert and non-threatening window into people's lives. It's like wearing a complex set of underwear."
In addition, the volunteers ate all of their meals at the Mayo Clinic so that every calorie they consumed could be counted. They also were required to drink a solution with tracers that monitored their metabolism.
After the initial experiment was done, the obese subjects were put on a weight-loss diet and the lean volunteers were overfed so they gained weight. The experiment was repeated, but the finding was the same. The original obese volunteers continued to sit for substantially longer than the lean volunteers.
Although the study must be considered preliminary because it involved only 20 people, the results do support previous experiments suggesting that a person's propensity for movement might be genetic, said Eric Ravussin, a researcher with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Roug e, La.
That could mean it might be necessary to create more opportunities for people to move, he said.
"We need to redesign new environments, to reverse what some have called the `toxic environment,' in way that more ambulation is necessary and is also enjoyable," he said.
Doing so might require more use of public transportation or creating neighborhoods where stores are within walking distance, said Ravussin, who also wrote a commentary accompanying the study.
However, encouraging people to move around more as a way of losing a lot of weight is not likely to be as simple as it sounds, said Dale Schoeller, a professor of nutritional science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
"When we exercise, we tend to eat more," Schoeller said. "People have to diet to lose weight."
Schoeller said it takes about 3,600 calories to make a pound of fat. If people who are overweight begin a fidgeting program, it will burn off some calories.
But "if they just start tapping their feet three hours a day it should help, but there has to be something else going on, " he said.
Another implication of the research is there might be substances produced in the body or the brain that are associated with movement, Levine said.
Already one such substance, the brain protein orexin, has been shown to produce more movement when it is injected into the brains of animals, he said.
It is possible that someday a pill might be developed to encourage people to move more, he said.
But such a medicine might be a hard sell, especially for regulatory authorities, said Paul Trayhurn, a professor of nutritional biology at the University of Liverpool.
"The idea of a drug that discourages you from sitting and makes you want to keep making small movements, whether fidgeting or standing and pacing a room, is unlikely to be accepted," Trayhurn said.
Still, Trayhurn said the study convincingly showed small movements associated with posture can have significant effect on daily calorie expenditure and there are important differences between lean and obese people.
"To the public, the conclusion may not seem like rocket science, but it took rocket science to get this data in such a convincing manner," he said.
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Man, no kidding. I can't wait for the study to find out what percent of people who drown were in the water.
'Ya think??????
OMG!!!!
Who would have thought....
"...comes after an exhaustive Mayo Clinic study published Friday in the journal Science"
exhaustive....
kinda fits.
I mean, some of these huge women that you see at the grocery store take forever to get their checkbooks out of their purses...then, they even write slowly! Everything that they do is in slow motion.
Total hyper-type-A person, here. Drives me to distraction...LOL!
I can't believe the Mayo Clinic is doing such amateurish studies.
Ten fat people and ten thin people.
If a person is constitutionally endomorphic, adopting the behaviors of an ectomorph are not going to turn them into an ectomorphic (thin, nervous type) person, or vice versa.
I wish these gullible journalists would go back to school and get a real education so they don't get flimflammed by every liberal looking for grant money.
I'm often puzzled by the really huge people moving around in little electric motor carts. Shouldn't they be up and walking so as to decrease their size, isn't the motor cart facilitating their condition?
I remember when I was a kid, one or both legs always seemed to be a jigglin'. We'd be sitting at the dinner table an my mother who ask, "Who's fidgeting?" and I wouldn't even know it was me. She'd have to ask twice. I had to train myself to stop doing it.
Now 45 years later, wouldn't you know it, I've become a few pounds overweight. All because I stopped jigglin'?
I guess I too will have to start back to fidgeting for my health. It's worth a try. Maybe that's why Parkinson patients are so often thin?
I missed where it said how much this startling news cost the taxpaying public.......
Also, we're living in the age of the remote everything, from windows to TVs. From now on my legs are jigglin while I'm using this computer, that's all there is to it.
That's why I call 'em Generation X-Large
".....and in other news, the grass is green & the sky is blue" My quesion, how much money was spent on this "Study"
C'mon, Mayo Clinic, 'fess up. What did you really spend the money for the exhastive research necessary to come to such a stunning conclusion on?
Lots of beer, right? You can tell us; we'll keep it quiet.
They are riding around in those little motor cars, because their little knees and ankles can't take the stress/pain of all the fat they have to hold up...but it seems the butt has no problem with weight bearing.
that's just nasty
"To the public, the conclusion may not seem like rocket science, but it took rocket science to get this data in such a convincing manner,"
1st part: Correct.
2nd part: I didn't need rocket science to convince me.
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