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AFTNews, Fitness

Endurance expert: Drugs could help ‘lazy’ people exercise

Endurance expert suggests drugs could help ‘lazy people’ exercise In what has been described as ‘doping for lazy people’ a University of Kent endurance expert has advocated the use of psychoactive drugs to encourage sedentary people to exercise.

Together with lack of time, physical exertion is one of the main perceived barriers to exercise. This is not surprising because humans evolved to be ‘lazy’, i.e. to conserve energy. Professor Samuele Marcora suggests that reducing perception of effort during exercise using caffeine or other psychoactive drugs (e.g. methylphenidate and modafinil) could help many people stick to their fitness plans.

Whilst acknowledging that such an intervention is both drastic and controversial, Professor Marcora points out that perception of effort is one of the main reasons why most people choose sedentary activities for their leisure time. Compared to watching television (zero effort), even moderate-intensity physical activities like walking require considerable effort. He says finding a way that makes people with very low motivation to do even moderate exercise, like walking, could be particularly useful.

Similarly, a reduction in perception of effort would be very helpful to the many people who find exercise difficult because they are overweight and/or exercise after work in a state of mental fatigue.

Professor Marcora also states that whilst there is no strong ethical opposition to the use of psychoactive drugs to help quit smoking (nicotine) or treat obesity (appetite suppressants), the negative perception of doping in sport may prevent the use of stimulants and other psychoactive drugs to treat physical inactivity.

Given that physical inactivity is responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity, he hopes that psychopharmacological treatment for physical inactivity will be considered fairly and seriously rather than immediately rejected on the basis of unrelated ethical considerations about doping in sport.

Professor Samuele Marcora is Director of Research at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. His paper Can Doping be a Good Thing? Using Psychoactive Drugs to Facilitate Physical Activity Behaviour has been published in the journal Sports Medicine.

Source: University of Kent article, “Endurance expert: Drugs could help ‘lazy’ people exercise: In what has been described as ‘doping for lazy people’ an endurance expert advocates psychoactive drugs to encourage sedentary people to exercise.” Science Daily, 3 November 2015.

AFTNews, Diet & Nutrition

Low energy sweeteners help reduce energy intake and body weight, evidence shows

Source: University of Bristol

Summary: Use of low energy sweeteners (LES) in place of sugar, in children and adults, leads to reduced calorie intake and body weight – and possibly also when comparing LES beverages to water — according to a new review.

Use of low energy sweeteners (LES) in place of sugar, in children and adults, leads to reduced calorie intake and body weight — and possibly also when comparing LES beverages to water — according to a review led by researchers at the University of Bristol published in the International Journal of Obesity.

For the first time, all available science was integrated into a single review to evaluate the real impact of LES, such as saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and stevia, on energy intake (EI) and body weight (BW) over the short- and long-term. A considerable weight of evidence confirmed that consuming LES instead of sugar helps reduce relative energy intake and body weight.

Lead author Professor Peter Rogers from the University of Bristol said: “We believe that we should shift the question from whether LES are ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and rather focus on how they should be best used in practice to help in the achievement of specific public health goals, such as the reduction of intakes of free sugars and energy.”

The authors conducted systematic reviews of relevant studies in animals and humans consuming LES in a non-restricted diet. In total, 12 human prospective cohort studies, 228 comparisons in human intervention studies (short and long-term) and 90 animal studies were examined.

Managing energy balance (that is, energy intake vs. energy expenditure) well results in a steady body weight. On the contrary, eating an excessive amount of food causes an increase in body weight as this extra energy is stored in the body as adipose tissue (fat). Low energy sweeteners were developed for consumers looking for ways to reduce their sugar and energy intake.

The comparison between LES beverages and water is important because it shows that LES do not increase appetite. If anything, the evidence suggests that LES beverages reduced weight more than water. One reason for this may be that switching from sugar-sweetened drinks to those with LES may be an easier and more acceptable dietary change to make than switching to water.