Obesity Causes Gradual Decrease in Physical Activity

We are all aware of the fact that physical inactivity makes one obese. But no one has so far focussed on the reverse of this equation i.e., the effect of obesity on physical activity.

For the first time ever, researchers at the Brigham Young University have focused on the other side of the equation, to find out whether obesity leads to physical inactivity.

The study was led by science professor Larry Tucker, who was not astonished with the finding, as it confirmed what everyone has believed till date.

"Most people talk about it as if it's a cycle," Tucker, senior author of the study, said in a press statement. "Half of the cycle has been studied almost without limit. This is the first study of its kind, in many ways, looking at obesity leading to decreases in physical activity over time."

The study was conducted on more than 250 participants. The researchers attached an accelerometer to each participant to measure their actual movements, as well as the intensity of the activity. They noticed that almost 35 percent of the population reported being regularly active. However, on checking with the accelerometer, just 5-7 percent of the adults were regularly active.

At the beginning of the study, of the 254 female participants, 124 obese participants were asked to wear the accelerometer for seven consecutive days. At the end of the study after 20 months, they were asked to wear it for an additional week.

Researchers noticed a drop of 8 percent physical activity in obese people over 20 months. This is equal to decreasing moderate to energetic physical activity by 28 minutes per week. But in the healthy women, there were no changes in the amount of physical activity they were participating in weekly.

The study was published in the journal Obesity.