Australian Men’s Fitness – September 2019

24 MEN’SFITNESS SEPTEMBER 2019

Weight loss
Breakthroughs

Sleepingwitha TVor

lightonin thebedroom

maybea riskfactor

forgainingweight,say

scientistsattheUS

NationalInstitutesof

Health.Exposureto

artificiallightatnight

mayalterhormones

andotherbiological

processesin ways

thatraisetherisk

ofhealthconditions

likeobesity.Whilean

unhealthydietand

sedentarylifestyle

remainthemost

commonlycited

causesofweightgain,

switchingallthelights

offbeforeyouhead

toBedfordshire– or

wearinga sleeping

mask– couldhelpkeep

yourweightunder

controlevenmore.

The global obesity epidemic is

so far-reaching, it now has a

name: “globesity”. A research

team in the US may have found one

answer to why we’re getting fatter –

a mutation in the gene that regulates

the key hormone suppressing hunger,

leptin. Humans need adequate

leptin circulating levels to tell the

brain that their body fat content is

enough and they don’t need to keep

eating more food. In other words,

leptin signals mammals to stop eating.

By researching what goes wrong

when genes don’t code correctly

for the production of leptin, scientists

are coming closer to answers that

could help millions of people with

metabolic disorders which are fuelled

by obesity, such as cardiovascular

disease and diabetes.

Hunger busters

13

%

of the world’s

adult population

is obese.

28

%

of the Aussie

population

is obese.

2

in

3

Aussie adults

are overweight

or obese.

■If youwanttoenjoy

yourfoodandeat

lessofit, sitdown.

Standingupwhile

eatingcanmutetaste

buds,impacting

taste,temperature

perceptionandoverall

consumptionvolume.

Sosaysresearchfrom

theUniversityof

SouthFlorida,US,

whichfoundposture

impactstaste

perception,withfood

tastingbetterwhen

you’resittingdown.

It’salltodowiththe

Take a seat

extra physical stress

that the body is under

when standing. This

stress causes a chain

reaction within the

body, which reduces

sensory sensitivity,

including your sense

of taste. This effect

also works in reverse,

with less palatable

foods tasting less

unpleasant when

eaten standing. This

is a great trick to get

your kids to eat their

Brussels sprouts

(you’re welcome).

Please

be seated.

■Youcanblame

junkfoodorlackof

exercise.Butlong

beforethemodern

obesityepidemic,

evolutionmadeus

fat,too.Humans

arechubbierthan

chimpanzees,

despitehaving

nearlyidenticalDNA,

andcomparedto

ourclosestanimal

relatives,evenpeople

withsix-packabs

haveconsiderablefat

reserves.Whileother

primateshaveless

than9%body

fat,a healthy

Monkey business

range for humans is

anywhere from 14% to

31%. Researchers from

Duke Uni, US, have

revealed why this is

the case – chimps

and early humans

underwent critical

shifts in how DNA is

packaged inside their

fat cells. As a result,

this decreased the

human body’s ability

to turn “bad” calorie-

storing white fat into

the “good” calorie-

burning brown kind.

Humans, like chimps,

need fat to cushion

vital organs, insulate

us from cold and

buffer us from

starvation. But early

humans may have

needed to plump up

for another reason

• as an additional
  source of energy
  to fuel our growing,
  hungry brains.

Do the

funky

gibbon.

HEAVY

LIGHTS