Physical Factors

Among the current—though scarcely new—developments in the management of obesity is the revised emphasis on the role of exercise. Once regarded as a major factor in the treatment of overweight, physical activity was later accorded less importance in the wake of revelations that considerable effort was required to shed even one pound of adipose tissue. The small amounts of energy expended during a 36-mile walk or a 6-hour swim discouraged a majority of would-be reducers who were too readily convinced that they lacked the resources to work off even a small part of their surplus. Moreover, they found spiritual as well as bodily comfort in some expert opinion that calories expended through exercise would be immediately replaced as a result of an automatic increase in appetite. The only exercise that mattered, they were persuaded, was the thrice daily practice of pushing themselves away from the table "soon enough and far enough."

At present, fortunately for fitness as well as for fatness, exercise has been restored to grace and enjoys respectability. Exercise is advocated for weight control for at least three reasons:

  1. It helps expend calories.
  2. Within the usual range of activity, exercise need not stimulate a corresponding increase in appetite to offset the energy deficit.
  3. The energy output required to offset a pound of fat is approximately 3,500 calories, but the weight need not be lost in a given time period.

Instead of the exhausting, often impossible 36-mile hike within the span of hours, a walk of just 1 extra mile per day for 36 days is a simple, even pleasant device for shedding an extra pound of fat. The total loss of 10 pounds thus achieved in a period of a single year represents a rate of loss which, with few exceptions, is greatly in excess of that at which corpulence is normally acquired. The average obese individual typically accumulates his 10 to 30 per cent surplus over a span of approximately as many years.

Exercise also furthers physical, mental, psychological, and social fitness. It provides an outlet for emotional tensions, promotes self-confidence, wholesome social activity, and good sportsmanship, and enhances the real, albeit intangible, sense of general well-being that provides the will power to confront and master personal challenges—including a reducing regimen.

Present evidence indicates that physical activity does not modify the distribution of fatty tissue in various undesired localities. This is determined by factors governing body build.

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