Stand up!

[Fash]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHar ... 069&page=1

Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much.

In most cases, exercise alone, according to a team of scientists at the University of Missouri, isn't enough to take off those added pounds. The problem, they say, is that all the stuff we've heard the last few years about weight control left one key factor out of the equation. When we sit, the researchers found, the enzymes that are responsible for burning fat just shut down.

This goes way beyond the common sense assumption that people who sit too much are less active and thus less able to keep their weight under control. It turns out that sitting for hours at a time, as so many of us do in these days of ubiquitous computers and electronic games and 24-hour television, attacks the body in ways that have not been well understood.

The Need to Putter

"It was hard to believe at first," said Marc Hamilton, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia and leader of the research team. He said the team didn't expect to find a strong signal when they began researching what happens to fat when we remain seated. But the effect, both in laboratory animals and humans, turned out to be huge.

The solution, Hamilton said, is to stand up and "putter."

The research was published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes, and it will be presented by Hamilton's post-doctoral researcher, Theodore Zderic, at the upcoming Second International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health in Amsterdam.

Hamilton is not suggesting that anyone quit exercising. But he says his work shows that exercise alone won't get the job done. We have to pay more attention to what's happening when we aren't in the gym, because the body's ability to dispose of fat virtually shuts down, he says, at least if we're sitting down.

Hamilton recruited a few laboratory rats and pigs, as well as about a dozen human volunteers, including himself, to learn more about the physiological effect of sitting. The lab animals laid the foundation for the research in two different experiments. The animals were injected with a small amount of fat that contained a radioactive tracer so the researchers could determine what happened to the fat.

"What's the fate of that fat?" Hamilton asked during a telephone interview. "Is it burned up by the muscle?"

The radioactive tracer revealed that when the animals were sitting down, the fat did not remain in the blood vessels that pass through the muscles, where it could be burned. Instead, it was captured by the adipose tissue, a type of connective tissue where globules of fat are stored. That tissue is found around organs such as the kidneys, so it's not really where you want to see the fat end up.

The researchers also took a close look at a fat-splitting enzyme, called lipase, that is critical to the body's ability to break down fat.

After the animals remained seated for several hours, "the enzyme was suppressed down to 10 percent of normal," Hamilton said. "It's just virtually shut off."

The results from the animal studies were very convincing, he said, and human experiments were just as compelling. The researchers injected a small needle into the muscles of the human volunteers and extracted a small sample for biopsy. Once again, the enzyme was suppressed while the humans remained seated. That resulted in retention of fat, and it also resulted in lower HDL, the "good cholesterol," and an overall reduction in the metabolic rate.

You Need to Move Those Legs

The implications, Hamilton said, are clear. While much thought has been given to the good effects of regular exercise, scientists have not paid enough attention to what happens during the rest of the time when we may be fairly active but are probably sitting too much. That could help explain the rising tide of obesity, because people tend to sit more these days than they did a half century ago. Not to mention eating too much and getting precious little exercise.

Some might argue that playing video games, or even working at the computer, involves movement of the upper body, especially the hands and arms, so that's not really inactive. But Hamilton counters that arms don't weigh very much, and the big muscles in the human body which are so critical to burning fat are located in our legs and back.

"When we think about the postural muscles that are mostly in the legs and back, these are big, powerful muscles," he said. "We're talking probably 20 pounds of muscle in each leg. That's a lot of muscle that can be engaged in routine activities," including burning fat. But they can't do that without the enzyme that is suppressed while seated.

Much is still not known, including such fundamental issues as how long the effect lasts from getting up and moving around for a while, but Hamilton expects the answers to come fairly soon.

"There is going to be a flood of research on this in the next couple of years, and not just by us," he said. "This has raised the attention of a lot of great scientists around the world who have begun doing their own studies."

In the meantime, he suggests, we do the obvious. Take the time to get up and "putter" for a while. If his research turns out to be on the mark, it could save your life.

I look forward to future research on this, but this explains a lot.... I'll have to start standing up to play guitar hero now!

[Nick]

In most cases, exercise alone, according to a team of scientists at the University of Missouri, isn't enough to take off those added pounds.

Not if you continue eating a fuckload more than you should.

eat well, exercise, problem solved. If it's not, you're either one of those hyper fat people or a lying fuck. Get over it.

[Sylvus]

In most cases, exercise alone, according to a team of scientists at the University of Missouri, isn't enough to take off those added pounds.

Not if you continue eating a fuckload more than you should.

eat well, exercise, problem solved. If it's not, you're either one of those hyper fat people or a lying fuck. Get over it.

Did you happen to read all of the above article? Because they're kind of contradicting exactly what you're saying.

eat well, exercise... and try to stand up more often, problem solved. That is, if you prefer scientific findings over the rantings of a drunken Irishman.

I'm still up in the air on where I prefer to place my faith.

[Canelek]

I'm still up in the air on where I prefer to place my faith.

Heavenly Father, of course! DUH!

[Nick]

Nice bigoted little remark there Sylvus, not to mention the complete refusal to acknowledge the basic argument, lol drunken irishman:

So we can't call you or (for the sake of argument) Dregor, fat (not that I'd want to), but you can come off with this bullshit? Fuck off buddy.

It turns out that sitting for hours at a time, as so many of us do in these days of ubiquitous computers and electronic games and 24-hour television, attacks the body in ways that have not been well understood.

Well fucking duh.

If you're sitting down too much, you are by default not bothering to have a healthy lifestyle, and to be honest that would be obvious to anyone with a brain.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Nice bigoted little remark there Sylvus, not to mention the complete refusal to acknowledge the basic argument, lol drunken irishman:

So we can't call you or (for the sake of argument) Dregor, fat (not that I'd want to), but you can come off with this bullshit? Fuck off buddy.

It turns out that sitting for hours at a time, as so many of us do in these days of ubiquitous computers and electronic games and 24-hour television, attacks the body in ways that have not been well understood.

Well fucking duh.

If you're sitting down too much, you are by default not bothering to have a healthy lifestyle, and to be honest that would be obvious to anyone with a brain.

Man, you are a bitter little man. I really don't get all the anger and hate.

Anyways, very interesting article.

[Sylvus]

Nice bigoted little remark there Sylvus, not to mention the complete refusal to acknowledge the basic argument, lol drunken irishman:

So we can't call you or (for the sake of argument) Dregor, fat (not that I'd want to), but you can come off with this bullshit? Fuck off buddy.

That wasn't bigoted in the slightest. I was calling you a drunken Irishman. Were I being bigoted, I would have left off the "drunken" part for redundancy's sake. It was more for the fact that you've posted here about alcohol/drugs often enough that I felt it was apropos. Not to mention that I'm both a drunk and of more Irish ancestry than anything else. "Drunken Irishman" isn't a derogatory term; I was merely trying to make you sound as unqualified as you are to refute this scientific study.

My apologies if you were offended as such, it was not my intention.

As far as calling me fat, knock yourself out. I've never made a complaint against anyone for doing that about myself or anyone. If it gets to the point where you annoy the shit out of everyone with it, that's all the content you have for any of your posts, and people complain to me about it enough, I'll take action. If my "drunken irishman" post count gets similarly bad, I'd encourage people to let Py our Xou know, and they can take action against me.

And finally, as far as acknowledging the basic argument, what? I did exactly that. You said "eat well, exercise, problem solved". This article is saying the exact opposite of that. If you eat well, and exercise, that may not be enough because sitting too often has now been shown to affect enzymes that metabolize fat. Hence me pointing out that I'd take a scientific study over the opinions of a drunk of any nationality. You should also be encouraged to put more faith in scientific studies or the opinions of experts rather than the opinions of a drunk (namely myself).