Comments on OBESITY PANACEA: Physical Activity Reduces Risk of Childhood Fat Ga...

Hi Travis, The point is that the most physical ac...

2009-12-08T08:50:44.586-05:00

Hi Travis,

The point is that the most physical active kids could be more active by genetics and also slim by genetics. We use to think that active kids grew up to be happier. That association came into new light with this study among 85.000 twins.

http://www.tweelingenregister.org/nederlands/verslaggeving/NTR-publicaties_2007/Stubbe_PM_2007.pdf

Happier kids (genetics) are more active.

Hi Jan, Thanks for the comment, but I'm not s...

2009-12-07T16:50:54.690-05:00

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the comment, but I'm not sure I completely understand what you're getting at? I take it you think that the physical activity is not itself causing the lowered weight gain?

Could you send me a link or the reference of the Dutch study you mentioned? I'd love to check it out.

You are right - we are a little biased towards exercise, but you'd be surprised how open we are to changing our opinion when presented with strong data (it has happened more than once in the past year!).

Travis

You are right by being cautions on drawing hard co...

2009-12-07T16:40:08.238-05:00

You are right by being cautions on drawing hard conclusions, because it is an observational study.

But I really doubt this will fly. The reason is that we really had strong correlations on excercise in childhood and happiness. In 2007 a twinstudy showed that there is no such relation (yeah, the Dutch spoiled it again ;-). And no, I'm not against exercise, but although I applaud your caution, I do detect a certain bias on your enjoyable blog.

@ Rob, You are right, body weight is absolutely t...

2009-12-02T19:03:01.218-05:00

@ Rob,

You are right, body weight is absolutely the result of energy in vs energy out. The problem is that energy in and energy out are influenced by numerous factors, including each other. So the argument often goes that exercise increases appetite, which increases food intake, which negates the benefits of physical activity (with respect to body weight at least). I'm not saying that I buy that argument, but it does have some traction, which is why findings like this are so exciting.

@ Anonymous,

I couldn't agree more!

Exercise improves body composition even if the sca...

2009-12-02T14:29:27.524-05:00

Exercise improves body composition even if the scale doesn't change.

Why is it not obvious that weight gain and loss ab...

2009-12-02T07:57:10.043-05:00

Why is it not obvious that weight gain and loss absolutely must follow the laws of chemistry and physics? If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. To claim otherwise violates the second law of physics. Of course diet is important, but weight is absolutely and totally controlled by the balance between caloric intake and consumption.