New findings from a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shed light on the benefits of an active lifestyle for older, obese adults.
In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight, including 600 million who were obese, reports the World Health Organization (see the worldwide obesity map). Being overweight is a risk factor for serious medical conditions including metabolic syndrome, a cluster of health problems related to high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar levels, and low HDL (the “good” cholesterol). According to the NIH, a person with metabolic syndrome is twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes.
“Regular engagement in physical activity is known to protect against development of metabolic risk factor clustering, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, with the degree of benefit proportional to the intensity of activity performed,” said study author Joshua A. Bell, a PhD student in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London.
Bell and colleagues collected data on physical activity of 3,457 older adults ages 60 to 82 years old. They looked for trends in total movement as well as exercise intensity across 9 consecutive days. These adults were grouped by weight—normal, overweight, obese—and then divided into “healthy,” having fewer than 2 metabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure or insulin resistance, or “unhealthy” subsets.
Participants completed surveys on physical activity and also wore GENEActiv accelerometers, scientifically-validated tools that strap on like wrist watches and measure physical behaviors.
No surprise, obese adults in this study were less active than their normal weight counterparts. They were also less likely to meet recommended guidelines for moderate-to-intense physical exercise.
However, while there was no significant difference between “healthy” obese and “unhealthy” obese for vigorous exercise, there was one key finding. It turns out that “healthy” obese adults are more active than their “unhealthy” obese counterparts.
This difference was discovered using the accelerometer data and not the participant’s own assessment. Physical activity is often of an “incidental nature” noted the researchers, making it hard to recall and report in a study. The wearable, on the other hand, objectively tracked all movement revealing a link between activity and metabolic health in an obese population.
“Physical activity likely has a greater role in promoting health in obese populations than previously thought and may confer substantial reductions in disease burden,” says Bell.
These findings may not extend to younger populations and more research is needed following this cross-sectional study according to the authors.
Kimberly Hatfield