Fight fat tween gene with 1 hour of exercise

Fight fat tween gene with 1 hour of exercise One hour of moderate to vigorous exercise a day can help teens beat the effects of a common obesity-related gene with the nickname "fatso," according to a new European study.

The message for adolescents is to get moving, said lead author Jonatan Ruiz of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

"Be active in your way," Ruiz said. "Activities such as playing sports are just fine and enough."

The research supports U.S. guidelines that tell children and teenagers to get an hour or more of physical activity daily, most of it aerobic activity such as running, jumping rope, swimming, dancing and bicycling.

Scientists are finding evidence that both lifestyle and genes cause obesity and they're just learning how much diet and exercise can offset the inherited risk.

One gene involved with obesity, the FTO gene, packs on the pounds when it shows up in a variant form. Adults who carry two copies of the gene variant — about 1 in 6 people — weigh on average 7 pounds more than people who don't.

Exercising an hour or more daily made a big difference for the teens who were genetically predisposed to obesity. Their waist measurements, body mass index scores and body fat were the same, on average, as the other teenagers with regular genes.

But the teens with the gene variant had more body fat, bigger waists and higher BMI if they got less than an hour of exercise daily. The results were similar for boys and girls.

The teens lived in Greece, Germany, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Spain. The study was funded by the Spanish and Swedish governments and the European Union.

The new study found that most of the teenagers had at least one copy of the variant gene. Only 37 percent had regular genes. The rest had either one of two copies of the pesky fatso gene.

An earlier study in Amish adults in Lancaster County, Pa., found they needed three to four hours of moderate activity daily to beat the gene. The adults in that study did things like brisk walking, housecleaning and gardening.

The teens in the new study may have exercised more vigorously than the Amish adults, Ruiz said. The new analysis was designed to see whether the current U.S. guidelines — which specify a moderate to vigorous level of exercise for an hour a day — made a difference for kids.

The lead author of the Amish study, Evadnie Rampersaud of the University of Miami, said the new findings are "very interesting" because they suggest one hour daily spent exercising can be enough for teenagers at risk.

 

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- Posted on April 6, 2010
Submitted by Sydney_S on Thursday, 01/26/2012 - 22:29.

Exercise to stop obesity. Running, biking, and exercising helps your body stop obesity. A hour is a good limit for exercise. If you get on a routine you will get in shape. Plus you can eat healthy and stay healthy forever in your life. Your routine may never stop and may keep going and going. Learning to exercise will always help your body. Never stop being healthy.

Submitted by Pooja09 on Tuesday, 12/20/2011 - 12:45.

This is a good idea to exercise everyday for an hour. It will fight obesity for people and stay healthy. Thats what i do everyday I swim 20 laps in the pool within 45 minutes. If you do it everyday you will get use to it and keep on doing it everday. WIthin a week you will see a little difference in you belly. IF you dont have a exercise machine go to the gym and do it. Exercsing will keep you keep you healthy and you won't get obese.

Submitted by knight123 on Monday, 05/23/2011 - 07:28.

I think this a great idea for tweens to exercise for 1 hour. If people exercise we can help stop obesity for many kids. ....and they need to stop eating so much...

Submitted by jolyr on Tuesday, 05/17/2011 - 07:37.

It always seems like I am the only one who wants to get up and move; everyone else votes to stay home on the couch....even if i hate it..

Submitted by sxy-tyme on Friday, 05/06/2011 - 01:05.

It always seems like I am the only one who wants to get up and move; everyone else votes to stay home on the couch. If I go one day without exercise of some sort I feel terrible for a week. How teens/tweens can go days without physical activity is beyond me.

Submitted by jolyr on Friday, 04/29/2011 - 07:46.

I think this a great idea for tweens to exercise for 1 hour. If people exercise we can help stop obesity for many kids. ....and they need to stop eating so much

Submitted by jamylal13 on Thursday, 04/14/2011 - 11:14.

I think its good to exercise for an hour because if your not in sports or dont really participate in gym you need to exercise. I like this article because its kids at my school that dont do anything for gym and dont tryout for sports.

Submitted by mbowman3 on Thursday, 12/16/2010 - 20:15.

I think that everyone should exercise once in awhile, but 1 exercise a day for some Americans can be really hard. But i think that people should get atleast 1 hour a day of exercise. I mean people think that exercising is lifting weights and running, but its not. All you have to do is just have fun with your friends and go play outside. Its not hard.

Submitted by sierra1317 on Tuesday, 12/14/2010 - 10:44.

its good 2 exercise at least 1 hour day so u can always healthy and not so fat like poeple who should really lose some wait no offense

Submitted by COLEMSC0870 on Sunday, 12/12/2010 - 14:13.

I think this a great idea for tweens to exercise for 1 hour. If people exercise we can help stop obesity for many kids. Many kids don't exercise because they are to lazy or think they don't need to well we need to get them exercise by tricking them or motivate them to do better and then we well get ride of some obese tweens.