Eat less or exercise more

January 07, 2010 08:14 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 06:42 am IST - Washington

Patrick Verre with his Macrobiotic food giving suggestions to a healthy eating to a person recently at Mangalore. File Photo: R. Eswarraj

Patrick Verre with his Macrobiotic food giving suggestions to a healthy eating to a person recently at Mangalore. File Photo: R. Eswarraj

Putting an end to the constant debate on weight loss, Sydney scientists have said that the only reliable way to shed extra pounds is to eat less or exercise more - preferably both.

The boffins demonstrated that mice genetically altered to burn fats in preference to carbohydrates, will convert the unburned carbohydrates into stored fat anyway, and their ultimate weight and body composition will be the same as normal mice.

It all comes down to an enzyme known as ACC2 (acetyl-CoA carboxylase), which controls whether cells burn fats or carbohydrates. When it was shown that ‘blocking’ ACC2 will force cells to burn fats in preference to carbohydrates, many assumed that such ‘fat burning’ could make fat stores evaporate, and make people thin without changing food intake or energy expenditure, the experts said.

Associate Professor Greg Cooney, from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has discussed misconceptions surrounding ACC2 in findings that appear in the prestigious international journal, Cell Metabolism, online.

“Our data urges a correction in people’s concept of a magic bullet - something that will miraculously make them thin while they sit on the couch watching television,” said Professor Cooney. “While none of the large pharmaceutical companies have marketed ACC2 inhibitors, there are many kinds of so-called ‘fat-burning pills’ available in the health food, body building and alternative medicine markets, where limited clinical effectiveness data are required.” “Many such products can also contain potentially harmful stimulants or come with a recommendation to follow a calorie-controlled diet and do more exercise while taking them. If you follow those recommendations, then of course you’ll lose weight - but you’d lose it anyway.

“The energy you use in your home can come from a coal-fired power station, hydroelectric power, or a wind turbine. You won’t know which because the end result is electricity.

“The energy that fuels your body can come from fats, proteins or carbohydrates. You won’t know which because the end result is ATP, or cellular energy.

“Your body will use the energy it needs and store the leftover fats, proteins or carbohydrates as fat. When you do the sums, it’s ultimately a matter of calories in and calories out.

“It’s important to stress that the focus of our study was limited to an analysis of the impact of fat oxidation on overall fatness. We didn’t investigate all impacts of fat oxidation - and so we don’t rule out benefits of burning off fats in specific tissues.

“For example, manipulating fat metabolism may - or may not - lead to better insulin action in muscles or in the liver. Should insulin action be improved, that would obviously benefit obese people with Type 2 diabetes. But we can’t comment either way until we do the experiments,” the expert added.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.