Prognosis in obesity: Obstacles must be removed to prevent obesity through increased physical activity

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7514.452-a

BMJ 2005;331:452 (20 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7514.452-a

Letter

Prognosis in obesity

Obstacles must be removed to prevent obesity through increased physical activity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In his editorial Lean proposes that we all eata little less (0.418 mJ/day) and walk a little more (0.418 mJ/day,equivalent to 2000 steps) to prevent 90% of obesity.¹ If suchrecommendations work, they may seem a reasonable sacrifice forindividual people and therefore could work in practice. To promotephysical activity, however, we as a society face ever largerobstacles, mainly increased stress and an increasingly hostileenvironment (car clogged streets, threat of crime, and lackof parks and bicycle lanes). Moreover, we now have more caloriesaving machines than ever—cars, lifts, computers, electrictoothbrushes, etc—with more labour saving gadgets beingdeveloped and marketed on a seemingly daily basis.

Today the average adult in western Europe walks about 8000-9000steps daily. Among the Amish people in North America, who refrainfrom using electricity and cars, men accumulate 18 425 stepsdaily (0% obesity) and women 14 . . . [Full text of this article]

Erik Hemmingsson, health educator

Obesity Unit, Karolinska University Hospital, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden erik.hemmingsson@medhs.ki.se