GetFit.com.au

Researchers have called for an overhaul of exercise guidelines after a study found differences in the benefits of walking between obese and normal-weight people.

A study by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) found walking for as little as 30 minutes at a "pleasurable" pace could improve fitness in the obese.

But Professor Andrew Hills said it also found walking at the same pace would do nothing for the average-sized person.

Prof Hills, from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, studied "walking for pleasure" in 30 obese people and 20 non-obese people.

He found that the speed obese people described as pleasurable - 5.4kph - produced an exercise intensity that was enough to improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.

"When obese people walk for at least 30 minutes at a pleasurable pace they lift their heart rate and improve their cardiovascular system without feeling over-exerted," Prof Hills said.

"It appears that the extra fat in the obese causes a significant elevation-of-intensity effect on the heart and lungs at walking speeds that people describe as pleasurable."

Prof Hills said the finding underlined the need to define better guidelines for exercise by basing them on body characteristics, instead of the current "one-size-fits-all approach".

"The base measures that are traditionally used are incorrect," he said.

"This means the recommended 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise might not be enough for some people."

- AAP

Posted by Dean at 03:41 PM | Permalink

More than half of Queensland's adult population is overweight or obese, with men much more likely to be too fat than women, new research shows.
The statistics determined by the Central Queensland University's Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) come in the lead-up to the state government's Obesity Summit in Brisbane this week.

CSSR director Kerry Mummery said today an estimated 51 per cent of Queensland's adult population were too large, based on a study of more than 1,+200 men and women statewide.

Professor Mummery said 61 per cent of the state's men and 45 per cent of its women were too big because of a widespread "energy imbalance".

"As a population we are consuming too many calories but expending less energy because we have become very sedentary ... we need to supplement that with more active leisure time," he said.

"Both men and women are at unacceptable levels but it may be that women are getting more incidental activity such as housework and child care, but that is very speculative on our part," Prof Mummery said.

"We did a study recently that showed that the more men sat at work the more likely they were to be obese, but that didn't really hold to women."
He also said the likelihood of obesity skyrocketed with age.

Queenslanders aged 55 or over were 2.66 times more likely to be overweight or obese than those who were 18 to 34, the study showed.

"What we found is when you go over 35 it's close to six out of ten being overweight or obese," Prof Mummery said.

"There's that huge jump somewhere in the mid-30s where we starting to lay down that extra fat that we don't need."

The statistics were based on Body Mass Index (BMI) calculations of height and weight proportions, with the international benchmark of a BMI of over 25 used to class participants as overweight or obese.

Prof Mummery said the study proved it was crucial to address ways of reversing the state's increasing girth, in a bid to curb health problems including diabetes and heart disease.

He said he hoped solutions would be thrashed out at the Queensland Obesity Summit, which will attract a range of health professionals, at Parliament House on Wednesday and Thursday.

AAP

Posted by Dean at 11:47 AM | Permalink

For most people who exercise in the morning, there is no getting around the question: Eat and run? Or run and eat later ?

Fitness experts will say that eating first provides fuel for a proper workout. But according to one common belief, exercising on an empty stomach forces the body to tap into its reserves, burning off calories stored as fat and providing a more efficient workout. So who is right?

According to researchers, there is no simple answer. One study that examined the claim directly in 1995 found that a group of people did burn more calories from fat on days when they exercised on an empty stomach than on days when they had a small breakfast first. But the researchers found that the difference was negligible, and other studies have shown that fewer calories are burned in the long run because the workouts are shorter.

A study published in 1999 in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise had a group of people ride an exercise bike on two mornings: on one day after a small breakfast, and the other after eating nothing. The researchers found that when the subjects ate nothing, they became fatigued faster and stopped exercising about 30 minutes earlier.

Dr. David Prince, an assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, said that when you exercise on an empty tank, your body burns through stored carbohydrates first, then protein, before it finally moves on to fat. In the meantime, he said, "you lower your blood sugar, causing ravenous hunger that in most people would lead them to eat much more than they would otherwise."

His recommendation? A small piece of fruit, "just enough to give you energy for a more intense workout."

THE BOTTOM LINE Exercising on an empty stomach burns slightly more fat but shortens your workout.

New York Times

Posted by Dean at 11:42 AM | Permalink