Interventions to prevent obesity and its related illnesses should produce healthful benefits for individuals of any body weight, according to participants in a small-group discussion on behavior and exercise at a UI Obesity Conference held April 8. The conference was co-sponsored by the UI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) and the Institute for Biomedical Imaging (IIBI).

The small-group discussants included clinicians and researchers from the colleges of medicine, nursing and liberal arts and sciences.

“For the most part everyone is doing the same unhealthy eating and as a nation we are sedentary,” said M. Kathleen Clark, professor and director of the PhD Program in nursing. “Who gets fat first is most likely about genetic predisposition. The number of obese individuals in our nation is about environment including factors that determine our level of physical activity.”

Kathleen Janz, a facilitator for the group discussion and a professor of health and sport studies, said, “Advances in imaging technology have given us a more complete picture of the long-term effects of activity on a person’s physiology. And tools are being developed to better measure the immediate results of physical activity, such as the amount of energy expended during a given task. Even the definition of physical activity is changing as researchers acknowledge light activity throughout the day can be as effective as a sustained 30 minutes of daily moderate to strenuous activity—generally interpreted as exercise.”

Yet the challenge is to find effective, fun, sustainable activities that can work for a variety of populations, whether determined by family structure, socioeconomic status, living environment or developmental level.

The group concluded research is needed to understand interventions most likely to lead to healthy behaviors that can be maintained, such as everyday activities that burn calories and lower blood pressure and blood glucose.

“If we are going to successfully study determinants of activity and ultimately obesity, we will need to collaborate broadly with a number of people, including psychologists, socialists, geographers and geneticists,” Janz said.