No Differences in Energy Cost of a Predetermined Exercise among Young Overweight/Obese and Undernourished Individuals.

Background: Physical activity is an integral part of one's daily life. Obese (Ob) and undernourished (UN) persons are known to underperform physically as compared to normal weight (N) individuals. In this study, we have measured the energy spent to perform a prefixed exercise on treadmill walking and basal heart rate and blood pressure.

Recent advances in human brown fat physiology.

Of the two variants of adipose tissue, white fat is traditionally known as a lipid rich tissue which undergoes pathological expansion in obese conditions. To counter the excess accumulation of white fat in states of energy imbalance, the second and unique type of brown fat plays a key role by burning extra energy into heat through a special metabolic pathway. In addition brown fat also plays a vital role in thermoregulation in animals and newborn humans and infants.

Body fat and lean body mass assessment in human subjects--a comparison of two different techniques.

Body fat and lean body mass was assessed in young college students by two different techniques involving NIR method and body circumference measurements. NIR technique significantly over-estimated the body fat as compared to the results obtained by the other method. The difference between the methods was 23-30% high for fat and the variation was 5-9% low for lean body mass for the whole group.

Differing response of body weight gain to high fat diet treatment in the mouse.

Forty-eight mice maintained on a high fat diet supplement in addition to regular laboratory rodent chow responded differently in terms of body weight gain over a period of six weeks. Eleven mice gained weight that was comparable to body weights of mice given only chow for the same period of time while the others gained significantly higher body weights and became obese despite similar level of energy intakes. The increase in body weight was due to increase in body fat content as noted by carcass analysis.

Effects of ethanol consumption on brown adipose tissue thermogenic capacity in mice.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of ethanol consumption on brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenic capacity in mice. Mice offered only ethanol (10%; v/v) for 10 days as drinking fluid had significant reductions in total energy and fluid intakes relative to mice given water, but net weight gains were similar. BAT thermogenic capacity was reduced in mice drinking ethanol, as shown by decreases in tissue protein and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity and in the uncoupling protein content of isolated mitochondria.