Active monkeys remain thin, while the sofa potato monkeys get gage - no matter how much they eat.
The discoveries come from a research team led by Judy Cameron, PhD, senior scientist from the National Oregon Primate Research Center and Behavioral Neuroscience Professor and Obstetrics / Oregon Health Gycology
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Cameron studied 18 women's rhesus and feminine monkeys. All animals had their ovaries removed to simulate human menopause. Previous studies show that such monkeys tend to gain weight as well as middle-aged women.
Researchers place monkeys on a high fat diet - that is, the 35% diet of most women in the Western world. They let the animals eat as much or as little as they liked. And they let them exercise in their cages so much or as little as I wanted.
During a period of nine months, the researchers measured the level of activity of the monkeys using a measurement device they used around their necks. They also maintained a careful lane of the weight of animals, food intake and metabolic rate.Some animals ate a lot. Some do not. It made no difference in the weight of the monkeys.
Some animals were very active. Some were not. The difference was remarkable: the most active monkeys were eight times more active than the most sedentary monkeys. He made a huge difference as the monkeys weighed.
"we stopped if you ate a lot of food, would be more likely to get weight. But we did not find this," says Cameron. "Some individual monkeys that ate a lot of quantity have won a lot of weight, but others who ate a lot won virtually no weight. Very active monkeys did not gain weight over time. Very sedentary monkeys gained weight, even if they were not eating too much food." / p>
In a new study that was not published, the Cameron team placed overweight, inactive monkeys on a strict diet. They did not miss much weight.
"I do not think most people try to feed will be surprised," says Cameron. "The body immediately tries to compensate for the calories you are not taking, dropping your metabolic rate and lowering the level of activity. There was no way to get around the fact that activity matters a lot. In all, our feeling is that activity is very, very important in controlling body weight. "However, it may not be a simple thing for overweight or obese people become more active. Cameron says it is possible to predict how active monkeys will be when they are only 1 week old.
"Why are some monkeys more active? You think it was the situation they were living," says Cameron. "But we look at the Acres Monkeys to run and many games. You'd expect them to be very active. And if you move them in the house with fewer playmates, they should not be so active. But that was not true. A sedentary Monkey was so sedentary, and an active monkey was so active, no matter the scenario. And we think this remains true over time. "
It remains to be seen if human sofa potatoes can change to an active lifestyle. But Cameron's work may have placed a myth to rest: it is not your metabolism.People who earn or do not earn weight often point to their inherent metabolic rate like the guilty. For monkeys, at least this is not so. Metabolic rates of monkeys do not vary much. And those with the highest metabolic rate were no longer likely to win or lose weight than those with the lowest metabolic rate.
