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Role of physical activity in regulating appetite and body fat 18 October 2016 NB accepted.pdf (389.32 kB)

Role of physical activity in regulating appetite and body fat

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-11-03, 15:49 authored by David StenselDavid Stensel, James KingJames King, Alice ThackrayAlice Thackray
Recent articles in the press have questioned the role of physical activity in regulating appetite and controlling bodyweight. These articles can be confusing and misleading for the public. Yet this is a complex area and there is disagreement about the importance of physical activity even among academics. Uncertainty and misunderstanding in this area may be related to the heterogeneity of the term ‘physical activity’ which encompasses sporting pursuits with extremely high levels of energy expenditure over prolonged periods of time, as well as everyday tasks involving much lower levels of energy expenditure on an intermittent basis. This latter form of physical activity includes what has been termed ‘non-exercise activity thermogenesis’ (NEAT). In the right circumstances, physical activity can make a major contribution to the maintenance of a healthy weight even in the absence of dietary control although a combination of the two is almost certain to be more effective. In the long-term, evidence suggests that for most people exercise is likely to lead to only modest weight loss. This may be due to an insufficient amount of physical activity being performed together with compensatory changes in eating and exercise behaviours. This is hard to prove because energy intake and energy expenditure are difficult to quantify in free-living situations. Individual differences in the way people respond to exercise due to both environmental (e.g. social class, education level, income, eating and exercise behaviours of family and peers, weather etc.) and genetic factors also contribute to uncertainty about the effectiveness of physical activity for weight control. Nevertheless, physical activity remains a vital component of a healthy lifestyle due to its positive influence on energy balance as well as its potential to reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases.

Funding

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit based at University Hospitals of Leicester and Loughborough University.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Nutrition Bulletin

Volume

41

Issue

4

Pages

314-322

Citation

STENSEL, D.J., KING, J.A. and THACKRAY, A.E., 2016. Role of physical activity in regulating appetite and body fat. Nutrition Bulletin, 41 (4), pp. 314-322.

Publisher

Wiley © British Nutrition Foundation

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2016-09-12

Publication date

2016-11-15

Copyright date

2016

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: STENSEL, D.J., KING, J.A. and THACKRAY, A.E., 2016. Role of physical activity in regulating appetite and body fat. Nutrition Bulletin, 41 (4), pp. 314-322, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12234. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

ISSN

1471-9827

eISSN

1467-3010

Language

  • en