A little exercise goes a long way toward helping severely obese individuals improve their quality of life and complete important daily tasks, according to researchers at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center.

In a pre-program assessment where patients reported, on average, just under one hour of exercise per week, individuals who were more active reported better overall-quality of life. They also reported improvements in their ability to perform daily tasks as measured on a physical functioning scale.

“Things that many people take for granted like tying one’s shoes, getting dressed, or simply moving around were easier for those who reported routine exercise,” says Martin Binks, PhD, research director at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, a residential weight loss program at Duke University Medical Center. He presented the research, which included more than 1,200 participants, at the Obesity Society’s annual scientific meeting in Phoenix AZ. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

I found the following story at Sympatico-MSN site and thought it was interesting although there is not enough information to draw a conclusion. It seems to me that a gradual weight loss is best(HealthDay News) – The skeletal muscle of severely obese people is specially programmed to amass fat, researchers report.

The finding suggests the muscle has a metabolic “memory” of obesity, and it may explain why obese people have such a hard time losing weight, even when they cut calories.
The study in the October issue of Cell Metabolism also suggests that exercise may be able to override this programming and improve the ability of the obese to shed unwanted pounds.

Researchers found that the fat-building enzyme stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD-1) is three times more abundant in the muscle of obese people than the muscle of lean people. This finding provides insight into an important link between obesity, diabetes and abnormal fat buildup in muscle, the researchers said.
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