ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — More than two out of five adults in the U.S. are obese. You may have heard that if you move more, you’ll protect yourself from weight gain. But a new study shows exercise isn’t the most important piece of the obesity puzzle.
Obesity has become a health epidemic!
“Approximately 40 percent of the American population is considered overweight or obese,” stated Eyleen O’Rourke, PhD, associate professor of biology and cell biology at the University of Virginia.
And it’s a leading risk factor for all sorts of diseases.
“Those include diabetes, heart disease, neurodegeneration, and even cancer,” Prof. O’Rourke told Ivanhoe.
But a new study says exercise is not enough! Researchers found the number of calories burned was about the same whether the participants were active or not. So, a farmer with a physically active job burned about the same as an office worker. In fact, what you eat is roughly 10 times more important than declining activity rates in driving modern obesity.
“We are attuned to eat as much as we can when food is available. We have identified 14 genes that if you have the variants that we have identified, you are more likely to develop obesity,” explained Prof. O’Rourke.
But for now, your best bet to maintain your current weight is to consume the same number of calories your body burns in a day. This will depend on your age, sex, body type, and more. Online calculators like https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp from the NIH can help you figure it out.
“Your daily eating habits, your exercise level are going to define, largely, whether you have this disease or not,” said Prof. O’Rourke.
Finally — she says if you eat a deficit of 500 calories a day, you’ll lose about a pound per week.
The researchers point out that physical activity is still important, as it can improve cardiovascular health, your mental well-being, and longevity.
Contributors to this news report include: Julie Marks, Producer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2420902122
https://www.foxnews.com/health/study-reveals-primary-cause-obesity-its-not-lack-exercise
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-many-calories-a-day-should-i-eat
* For More Information, Contact: Eyleen O’Rourke, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology and Cell Biology at University of Virginia
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