Lazy Brits are not exercising enough, study finds

New research has painted a damning picture of Britain’s adults…Almost half of us are simply never doing any exercise.

The British Heart Foundation carried out a study and made the alarming discovery that a shocking 44% of adults do not engage in any form of moderate-intensity exercise, meaning British activity levels are shamefully amongst the worst across Europe.

An estimated five million adults are sat down for over a third of the day (8 hours), whilst around one in ten Brits say they are never walking anywhere for more than ten minutes at a time.

Britain is three times less active than our Dutch counterparts over in the Netherlands and overall ranks at a dismal 16^th place in a table of 28 European countries for fitness levels. This means we are on an equal inactive level with Slovakia, Romania and Ireland.

According to the NHS physical activity guidelines, adults aged 19-64 should be aiming for at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per day to stay healthy, which includes cycling or fast walking every week and muscle-strengthening exercises on two or more days each week that are making all the main muscle groups work. However, less than a third of women and less than half of men are actually reaching 150 minutes of the moderate-intensity exercise.

The study has resulted in further warnings about an increasing problem of obesity, which needs to be properly tackled sooner than later.

Catherine Kelly, director of prevention, survival and support at the BHF, commented: “The figures are a worrying indication of the overall picture of our nation’s heart health.

“Alongside funding research into improving outcomes for heart patients, we need to create environments that make it easier for people to better understand and cut their risk of heart disease.

“Research has shown that even making small, more active changes to your daily routine can improve your heart health.

“With the warmer nights and lighter evenings, the summer is the perfect opportunity for people to start making these changes.”

The new worrying statistics were amassed by researchers at Oxford University, who analysed previously conducted national surveys covering exercise levels and sedentary behaviour.

The surveys show that a mere 10% of UK adults are involved in a sport or physical activity on a regular basis or physical activity. This is in comparison to a slightly better rate of 15% in Sweden, Spain and Slovenia. In addition, 9% admitted to never walking for over ten minutes at a time.

In 2014, NHS officials warned that an insufficient amount of exercise could be attributed to around one in six deaths – i.e. fatalities from conditions such as cancer, stroke and heart disease, this is comparable to the death rates from smoking. They stressed that inactive lifestyles are not only to blame for obesity, but for problems such as muscle and joint complaints, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Regular exercise could lead to weight gain

Are you attending the gym for what you assume are sufficient workouts for keeping weight gain at bay – only  to find that the lbs. are actually creeping on you?

If so, you are not alone and a new survey has actually surprisingly discovered that over a quarter of recently enlisted gym-goers actually gain weight soon after starting to attend regular sessions at the gym. The primary reason for the weight gain is because soon after beginning to exercise at the gym, people to tend to reward themselves with ‘treats’ after working out, negating the main reasons for exercising in the first place!

Diet company Forza Supplements quizzed 1,000 gym users on their diet and exercise habits, finding that a staggering 39% merely burn around 300 calories during each visit to the gym.

To put this into perspective, that amount of exercise would not even be enough to burn off the calories in a bar (62.5g) of Snickers, which has 319 calories, and is only just sufficient enough to burn off the calories in a twin bar of Twix (58g), which has a total of 284 calories.

If people are not aware of the calories in such treats, in addition to those in other ‘reward’ foods such as crisps, or even a glass of wine (about 109 calories), it can mean gym goers are liable to put on weight over time. Interestingly, 42% believed that regular exercise meant they should be able to deviate from their diet plans.

The poll discovered that people attending regular gym sessions gave them a ‘feeling of complacency’ which impacted their ability at adhering to a recommended calorie intake per day.

It was found that 26% actually put gain weight following regular exercise, whilst almost a half (49%) reported no changes in their weight, whilst only 25% actually said they managed to lose weight.

Also found in the survey was the fact that the majority of exercise enthusiasts usually go to the gym on average between three and four times a week, and whilst there they then exercise for between 40 minutes and an hour on average.

For every ten gym users, four will burn between 300 and 500 calories in a gym session. Only a quarter however only burn off between 200 to 300 calories, whilst 10% burn just 100 to 200 calories and 4% less than 100 calories. Perhaps the last two groups should ask themselves why they bother to attend the gym!

A reason why going to the gym could cause people to put weight on is that exercising is causing an increase in metabolism and increasing people’s appetites. In fact, over half surveyed (53%) claimed their gym sessions had managed to significantly boost their appetites.

Nearly half also admitted they exercise prior to a night out on the town to ‘compensate’  for the huge amount of calories they are inevitably going to consume during the course of the night through alcohol. Many party-goers also tend to finish their night in the nearest takeaway and burgers, pizzas and kebabs can then add hundreds of calories on top of the calories within the alcohol.

Luisa Zissman, runner-up in The Apprentice, commented: “Who hasn’t had a guilt inspired exercise session? We all do it – work out furiously in the gym to get brownie points ahead of a night on the town. You know you are going to consume a stack of calories by boozing and drinking – so why not burn off a load beforehand.”

Almost 80% of adults don’t do enough exercise

Nearly eight out of every 10 adults in England may not be getting enough exercise each week and putting their health at risk.

This worrying statistic comes from a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and conducted by the University of Bristol, where researchers looked at data from over one million adults in England from the Active People Surveys (APS).  It was discovered that 80% were not adhering to governmental targets of engaging in moderate exercise at least 12 times in a four-week time period.
The APS analyses an individual’s socioeconomic position in addition to factors such as the weather and availability of sports facilities to them.

According to the researchers, the study demonstrates a clear association between a person’s education, household income and local area deprivation in accordance with the amount of physical activity they engage in.

It was found that better educated and wealthier individuals were more likely to exercise, whilst the poorer and less educated were more likely to not bother with much exercise. However on the whole, the majority of adults are seemingly way under the recommended levels of activity required to keep healthy.

Those with a degree apparently only had a 12% chance of being inactive but those without any qualifications were in fact three times more likely to not exercise.

Other findings from the study were the fact 8% of people physically capable of walking had not done this for even a mere five minutes continuously in the previous four weeks. Involvement in the most common activities was found to be ‘very low’.

In addition, researchers said nearly half (46%) had walked for less than 30 minutes continuously during leisure time, whilst 88% had not been swimming and a staggering 90% had not even been to a gym in the last four weeks.

Unsurprisingly, the study findings suggested that warm weather provided people with more motivation to exercise and rain decreased the amount of physical activity.

Carol Propper, professor of economics at the university’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation, said: “Physical inactivity is the most important modifiable health behaviour for chronic disease, so knowing who is physically inactive is important for designing cost-effective policy interventions.”

Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum and honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, hit out at the figures and said: “No-one should be at all surprised by these woeful statistics,” and blamed the government for not  doing enough to use the London 2012 Olympics as a springboard for more participation in grassroots sport.

To stay healthy, NHS guidelines state that adults aged 19-64 should try to be active daily and get at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. This can include fast walking, hiking, volleyball, rollerblading or basketball. However, on top of this the NHS recommends to engage in muscle-strengthening exercises on 2 or more days each week. This can include heavy gardening (such as digging and shovelling), lifting weights, yoga and exercises that use your body weight for resistance (such as push-ups and sit-ups).

It is apparent that many of the population are simply not doing enough to stay active and this in conjunction with poor diets are causing more and more people to become overweight or obese. The good news for those overweight or obese is that it is never too late to make positive changes and a healthy, balanced diet in conjunction with exercise and a weight loss aid such as Xenical, Alli, or XLS-Medical will provide you with the tools to live a much healthier life.

MHRA pull the plug on dangerous sports supplements

A popular sports supplement drink used for losing weight or as a pre-exercise boost agent for gym fanatics, has this week been banned from the UK market by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) after the Governmental agency deemed that Jack3D’s side effects were potentially dangerous. Their main concern was due to the product containing the stimulant known as DMAA (1, 3-dimethylamylamine).

Ingestion of DMAA has been shown to be connected to shortness of breath, narrowing of arteries, psychiatric disorders, vomiting, heart attacks and strokes.  Due to the safety concerns, the MHRA have long campaigned for any products that contain DMAA to be classified as unlicensed medicinal products and should be governed by strict medicine controls.

DMAA has already been banned in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Association following the death of a man who had obtained a sports aid through the internet that had contained the lethal substance. In addition, there would have been no chance of any athletes taking it at the London Olympics earlier in the month, as DMAA is listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances.

Sports supplements with DMAA have long gotten away with such free public sale as a ‘medicinal product’ due to the potent herbal properties in them. However, as the dangers have become more and more apparent, action needed to be taken and this came in the form of the MHRA issuing eight ‘urgent notices’ ordering all retailers to immediately withdraw Jack3D and all other similar products  that have DMAA in them.

David Carter, the Manager of the MHRA’s Medicines Borderline Section, spoke on the risks about the drug and said, “People need to be aware when choosing their sports supplements. These products may claim to increase performance but contain powerful ingredients which can have serious side-effects. We recommend that people only use approved products and speak to a qualified medical practitioner if they have any concerns about any supplements they may be taking.”

Graham Arthur, Director of Legal at UK Anti-Doping, added to David Carter’s comments and he said, “This is a significant step forward for all competitive athletes as methylhexaneamine (DMAA) is a banned substance ‘in-competition’ that frequently appears in over the counter and internet bought products but not clearly on the label.  Athletes who use sports supplements need to choose reputable manufacturers who can justify their claims with scientific evidence, and have their products screened to minimise the risk of testing positive for a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List. UK Anti-Doping continues to work closely with the MHRA to protect the health of athletes and to prevent doping in sport.”

A healthy lifestyle could reduce high blood pressure as effectively as drugs

Whilst we all know that exercising regularly, keeping our weight down, drinking in moderation and eating plenty of vegetables can affect our blood pressure, new research suggests that it can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure, by two thirds.

The impact of these measures on high blood pressure was much higher than expected, and in some cases could even be just as effective a way to treat sufferers as prescribing drugs. Just walking to work and restricting alcohol to two drinks a day can reduce the risk markedly, according to the study of more than 20,000 people.

Every day there are 350 preventable strokes or heart attacks in the UK caused by high blood pressure. In developed countries the lifetime risk of developing high blood pressure is now 90 per cent, and six million Britons take drugs to control it.

People with hypertension (the medical term for high blood pressure) are already routinely advised to make the lifestyle changes highlighted in the study, but the effect far surpassed expectations. The Finnish study followed 9,637 men and 11,430 women aged 25 to 74, who did not have hypertension.

Their adherence to healthy lifestyle factors was recorded, which included alcohol consumption of less than 50g per week (roughly six units), exercise at least three times per week, daily consumption of vegetables, and normal weight. During a follow-up period covering an average of 16 years, 709 of the men and 890 of the women developed hypertension.

Proffesor Pekka Jousilahti, ofFinland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare said: “The risk of hypertension was only one third among those having all four healthy lifestyle factors, compared with those having none. Even having one to three healthy lifestyle factors reduced the risk of hypertension remarkably.

For example, having two healthy lifestyle factors reduced the risk of hypertension by nearly 50 per cent in men, and by more than 30 per cent in women. Alcohol consumption, physical activity, daily consumption of vegetables and keeping normal weight are the four lifestyle factors that seem to have a remarkable effect on the development of hypertension.

Professor Jousilahti went on to add “people should drink a maximum of one to two drinks of alcohol a day and that even a relatively low amount of exercise was enough to make a difference.”  This was backed up by Professor Gareth Beevers, a trustee of the Blood Pressure Association UK charity, who said: “This study shows a big effect from simple changes in lifestyle. It’s surprising and more than you would expect.”

Professor Jousilahti concluded by saying: “that although participants were healthy at the start of the study, it was likely the findings would also help those who already have high blood pressure. Patients could reduce their blood pressure by modifying the four lifestyle factors alone, or by making these modifications while taking blood pressure-lowering medication.”

Active exercise videogames: Are they any good?

Active exercise videogames, also known as ‘exergames’, are increasingly popular with those looking to keep fit and keep their weight levels down. Ever since the pioneering interactive motion sensor-based Nintendo Wii first burst onto the scene in December 2006, the demand for games has been huge that require the user to exert a high level of energy. In particularly the ‘Just Dance’ videogame series has seen its sales skyrocket in the last few years, as well as various exercise games such as Zumba Fitness on the Nintendo Wii, or the X-Box 360’s Kinect Sports range.

However, just how effective are these games for weight maintenance, do they promote an attitude of actually getting in the gym to engage in rigorous exercise and how do they compare to getting out of the house and doing the exercises for real. Researchers from Michigan State University decided to find all this out for themselves.

One of the head researchers, Wei Pang, and colleagues decided to conduct a review of 41 previously published active videogame (AVG) studies. They deduced that only 3 of these studies were successful in persuading people to become more physically active and that the exergames usually only can ever provide users with ‘light-to-moderate’ physical activity which Wei says is nowhere near as effective as ‘real life exercise’.

Wei commented, “For those not engaging in real-life exercise, this may be a good step toward this. Eventually the goal is to help them get somewhat active and maybe move to real-life exercise. Some people are very enthusiastic about exergames. They think this will be the perfect solution to solve the problem of sedentary behaviour. But it’s not that easy.”

It is recommended by many health authorities that adults undertake at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity each week, equivalent to 30 minutes per day for five days. According to Peng, the videogames are not sufficient in keeping with these guidelines and providing the necessary levels of intensity. Despite this however, she does appreciate the positives that can be taken from the exergames.

She further said, “The games do have the potential to be useful. Especially for populations that are more suitable to light-to-moderate activity – seniors, for example. Just giving the games to people may not be a good approach. They may not use it or use it effectively. It’s better if used in a structured program where there are more people participating.”

At the end of the review, study authors also discussed the use of AVGs within different technology devices such as tablets or mobile phones and they said, “Additionally, mobile smart phones, tablet computers, and other portable gaming devices are emerging as possible AVG platforms. Besides their portability, these plat- forms also offer functions such as geospatial location tracking, pedometers, location-based knowledge presentation, and many other technologically sophisticated features that will make AVGs increasingly accessible and easily incorporated into daily life.”

Weight Loss Can Boost Your Libido

If you have lost your mojo, replacing certain foods in your diet and dropping a few pounds can increase your libido therefore not needing to take Viagra according to a new study.

The risks associated with obesity are widely known, and adult-onset diabetes is the largest risk associated with it. But did you know that the disease can cause male impotence? It's true. According to The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, nerve damage or reduced blood flow puts male diabetics at risk for sexual problems and bladder issues some 10 to 15 years sooner than their healthy counterparts. In fact, as many as 75 percent of men with diabetes suffer from such problems, and most of the time, the symptoms go undiagnosed. 

A recent study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine points to some good news: Losing just 5 percent of body weight can improve erectile function and enhance sexual desire in obese men with Type 2 diabetes. Only a small number of men were studied, but the results were remarkably consistent across the board. Whether they lost 5 or 10 percent of their original body weight, the subjects showed increased testosterone levels and better erections for as long as they maintained their weight loss. 

So how do I lose the weight without taking Xenical I hear you saying, well I will list a few easy pointers to guide you in the right direction to losing that midriff.

Limit Tran’s fats

A little fat won't hurt you, unless its Tran’s fat. According to a Harvard University study in the US, you could cut your risk of a heart attack in half by eating just 4g less of Tran’s fat each day.

Swap to Olive Oil

It's one of the richest sources of oleic acid and everyone should have a bottle of olive oil in their kitchen to cook with, instead of butter, margarine & Vegetable oil. Olive oil also contains vitamin E, an antioxidant that will strengthen your immune system and may lower high blood pressure.

Eat Porridge

Pretty simple this one, just eat it at least twice a week and it's full of B vitamins. Studies have also shown that adding a spoonful of antioxidant-packed honey will improve spatial memory, according to studies by the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Stock up on Fish

Try and eat fish as much as possible especially Sea Bass which tend to be very low in fat, so are an excellent choice for people who are trying to lose weight

Eat your greens

What ever your favourite vegetables maybe add them to your meals, meaning you will be eating more food but fewer calories especially if you swap them for chips.

Exercise

Exercise is a must for weight loss even if it is just 15mins per day. Try and work out as hard as you can for those 15mins and within a month you should notice some toning.

Follow these guidelines and within 2-3 months noticeable weight loss and toning should be showing, and not only that your erectile problems may have gone altogether.