A study at the University of Pittsburgh Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center reports that women who exercised 275 minutes per week (1835 kcal activity energy expenditure) showed a weight loss of 10% or more of initial body weight at 24 months of training.

Four behavioral weight loss groups were studied (201 overweight & obese women):
Physical activity energy expenditure: 1000kcal/wk with moderate intensity
Physical activity energy expenditure: 1000kcal/wk with vigorous intensity
Physical activity energy expenditure: 2000kcal/wk with moderate intensity
Physical activity energy expenditure: 2000kcal/wk with vigorous intensity

All participants were told to reduce food intake to 1200 to 1500 kcal/day. The BMI (Body Mass Index) range of the women was 27 to 40 kg/m^2.

The research team led by John Jakicic concluded that the addition of 275 mins/wk of physical activity, in combination with a reduction in energy intake, is important in allowing overweight women to sustain a weight loss of more than 10%.

Source:
Jakicic JM, Marcus BH, Lang W, Janney C. Effect of exercise on 24-month weight loss maintenance in overweight women. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jul 28;168(14):1550-9; discussion 1559-60.

The Denver Public School District is sending home student health reports to keep parents informed in an effort to combat the problem of childhood obesity. Some parents are upset that their children are traumatized when the messages are sent home with the children and the children read the messages.

The school district says that it saves money when it does not mail or use other methods of delivery to send the messages to parents.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults are predicted to be overweight and 41 percent obese by 2015, according to a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The researchers examined 20 studies published in journals and looked at national surveys of weight and behavior for  analysis, published in the journal Epidemiologic Reviews.

“Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese,” Dr. Youfa Wang, who led the study and reported the results in a statement.

Researchers defined adult overweight and obesity categories using a standard medical definition called body mass index. People with a BMI of 25 or above are considered overweight, while those with BMIs of 30 or above are obese and at serious risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.

Findings from study reviews:

In conclusion, obesity has increased at an alarming rate in the United States over the past three decades. Obesity will become the leading cause of preventable death, if it continues on the present course.

Source:
Wang Y, Beydoun MA.   The obesity epidemic in the United States–gender, age, socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and geographic characteristics: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Epidemiol Rev. 2007;29:6-28. Epub 2007 May 17.

Did you know there are more obese people on earth than there are starving people on earth? That is the news from The 10th International Congress of Obesity this year. The World Health Organization says more than 1 billion adults are overweight and 300 million of them are obese, putting them at much higher risk of diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer. There are about 600-800 million people in the world who are undernourished.

Additional important notes on The 10th International Congress of Obesity held in Sydney, Australia in Sepetember, 2006:

For the past 30 years attempts to urge people to eat less fatty foods and exercise more have failed to combat global obesity.

Obesity has become an “insidious killer and the major contributing cause of preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, with disastrous health, social and economic consequences,” co-chair Paul Zimmet told the conference. He continued that the growth of obesity-related diabetes, or so-called “diabesity”, was set to bankrupt health budgets all over the world.

The newest generation alive now may be the first generation in history where children die before their parents. Obesity rates are skyrocketing among children.

Obesity is not simply a matter of people eating less and exercising more, but discovering environmental and genetic contributors to obesity.

Obesity is not about gluttony — it is the interaction of heredity and environment. Small changes can make big difference in a person’s weight and health.

New obesity research has found that sleep deprivation and a diet of fats from fast food can alter a person’s biology and make them more susceptible to overeating and less active lifestyles, said the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Dietary supplements and alternative treatments promising weight loss have minimal or no effect because they cannot match existing evolutionary influences that cause the body to conserve energy in times of famine. Many over-the-counter remedies such as concentrated herbal preparations, food extracts, minerals and vitamins are promoted as helping to decrease body weight, but do not redress the nutrient imbalance from poor diets that produce obesity.

Human evolutionary design maximizes energy intake to supply the brain which uses about one-quarter of total energy expenditure.

The agricultural policies of the world’s top producing nations allegedly are increasing the problem of obesity in developing nations. The policies favor high-fat, high-energy products over basic fruits and vegetables. Trade policies subsidize and distort the market to make fats and sugars cheaper and fruits and vegetables more expensive.

More about the conference:
About 370 speakers and presenters at the six-day congress discuss a range of issues, including scientific research on how the brain regulates energy; adipocyte/metabolism; biological determinants of obesity; complications of obesity; and advances in the epidemiology, prevention and clinical management of obesity.

The conference is being attended by academics and health professionals from Australia, Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, Sweden, Indonesia and New Zealand.
 

A look at radiology reports from 1989 to 2003, including standard X-rays, computer assisted X-rays known as CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), showed that an increasing number of individuals were ‘habitus limited’ or, in other words, an increading number of obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into radiology scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, These scans are used to look for tumors, blood clots, broken limbs and other injuries and diseased organs.

 7,778 or 0.15 percent of 5,253,014 reports were habitus limited, which was about double the numbers from 15 years prior.

Ultrasound tests were most negatively affected by obesity.

SOURCE:
Uppot RN, Sahani DV, Hahn PF, Kalra MK, Saini SS, Mueller PR. Effect of Obesity on Image Quality: Fifteen-year Longitudinal Study for Evaluation of Dictated Radiology Reports. Radiology. 2006 Jun 26; [Epub ahead of print]

American Medical Response has added a $250,000 bariatric unit to its fleet in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ambulance is a little wider than a regular ambulance, has a larger stretcher/gurney and includes a winch and ramps with a 1,600-pound capacity.

In a six month period, AMR responded to 75 calls involving patients over 600 pounds in Las Vegas.

AMR originally placed this type of ambulance — a Type III ambulance with a box-type patient compartment and a van cab — in service in the Evansbille-metro area. With a reported increase in the number of transports of very large patients, Deaconess Hospital offered financial assistance to acquire the ‘Specialty Transort Unit’ ambulance.

Obesity is defined as an excess of body fat that results in the impairment of health and the impairment of body function.

According to the 2005 Yankelovich Preventative Healthcare Study, almost 75 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Only about one-third of Americans are actively attempting to correct personal overweight conditions. Obese Americans are concerned about losing weight to feel more healthy (84%) and to avoid ill-health (74%), while normal weight individuals are more likely to cite staying slim (64%) and looking more attractive (57%) as primary motivators.

One target group, married women with children, tends to be stymied first and foremost by time management concerns, such as finding time to cook for themselves when they typically cook for others (25%), not having the time to exercise (19%) and not having time to plan and shop for a diet (17%)

According to the 2005 Yankelovich Preventative Healthcare Study, there exists two main barriers to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight: motivation and education.

Major motivation barriers include:

    --  Dislike of exercise - 22%    --  Enjoying junk food too much - 21%    --  Lack of will power to stick to a plan - 15%

Major educational barriers include:

    --  Inability to afford a successful weight loss program - 20%    --  Insurance not covering weight-loss programs - 19%    --  Inability to figure out the best way to lose weight - 14%

Obesity causes the following clinical and physiological problems:

Clinical Problems
Heart disease
Hypertension
Certain types of cancer
Type 2 diabetes
Stroke
Arthritis
Breathing problems
Sleep apnea
Psychological disorders, such as depression

Physiological Problems
Decreased insulin sensitivity
Increased fasting insulin
Increased insulin response to glucose

Decreased growth hormone
Decreased growth hormone response to insulin stimulation

Increased adrenocortical hormones

Increased cholesterol synthesis and excretion

Decreased hormone-sensitive lipase

Cause of Obesity
The major cause of obesity is too many calories in the diet and too little calories in daily activity and exercise, which is complicated by the timing and type of food consumption and the timing and intensity of activity. In other words, weight control is not simply the balance of caloric intake and expenditure, but involves the timing and type of intake and expenditure that best controls the physiology and metabolism related to fat storage, fat release and carbohydrate storage and carbohydrate energy expenditure and protein acquisition for body structure. The pro or con of this balance and timing of caloric intake and expenditure may positively or negatively affect insulin function, which may be crucial to weight and body composition control..

Endocrine and genetic problems can also cause obesity, but these causes are not involved in the majority of the population.

Quantitative and Qualitative Descriptions
While some people have body self-image distortions, most people can honestly look in the mirror or consider the fit of their clothes to understand if they are overweight or obese. Nevertheless, for more objective scientific purposes, medical purposes and educational purposes, overweight and obesity are defined quantitatively and qualitatively.

Quantitative
Height/Weight Tables
Tables are used most often as an insurance guideline, but are not particularly helpful to people concerned with weight control. Several innaccuracies are possible with the estimation of clothing and shoe weights, and with the estimation of frame size. You’re considered overweight or perhaps obese if you are well above the table guidelines.

1999 METROPOLITAN HEIGHT AND WEIGHT TABLES FOR
MEN AND WOMEN
According to Frame, Ages 25-59
WOMEN
Weight in Pounds (In Indoor Clothing)* Height in Feet and Inches

* Indoor clothing weighing 5 pounds for men and 3 pounds for women. Shoes with 1-inch heels

Source of basic data Build Study, 1979. Society of Actuaries and Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America, 1980.Copyright