80 posts · 25,588 views

Travis Saunders and Peter Janiszewski are PhD students in Exercise and Health Physiology at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. Their research focuses on obesity, body composition, physical activity, nutrition and metabolic health.

Obesity Panacea
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March 15, 2010
12:42 PM
18 views

Is Weight Loss Associated with Increased Risk of Early Mortality?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

The current recommendations from major health organizations stipulate that if an individual has a BMI in the obese range (>30 kg/m2), they should be counseled to lose at least 5-10% of their body weight. This advice appears to make some sense given that increasing body weight is generally associated with heightened risk of various diseases, and that reduction of body weight usually improves levels of risk factors for disease (e.g blood pressure, triglycerides, etc). However, the literature h........ Read more »

Ingram, D., & Mussolino, M. (2010) Weight loss from maximum body weight and mortality: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Linked Mortality File. International Journal of Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2010.41

March 12, 2010
12:05 PM
28 views

Google Adds Cycling Routes to Their Maps!

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Regular readers of Obesity Panacea will know that I am a huge fan of active transportation (e.g. walking or cycling to work, rather than commuting by vehicle). I just can't say enough good things about it. It often takes about the same amount of time as commuting by vehicle, plus it ensures that you're getting at least some physical activity on even the busiest days. Even just taking transit instead of driving yourself increases your chances of meeting the daily physical activity gu........ Read more »

Wilkinson, P., Smith, K., Davies, M., Adair, H., Armstrong, B., Barrett, M., Bruce, N., Haines, A., Hamilton, I., & Oreszczyn, T. (2009) Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: household energy. The Lancet, 374(9705), 1917-1929. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61713-X

March 10, 2010
11:40 AM
50 views

Body mass index (BMI) as a measure of obesity and health: a critical appraisal

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

If you go to your physician's office and inquire about your weight status, he or she will measure your height and weight to derive your BMI (weight in kg divided by height in m squared). Then they will compare your BMI to that of established criteria to decide whether you are underweight (<18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25-29.9 kg/m2), or obese (>30 kg/m2) . Often times, this measure alone determines whether or not you receive lifestyle treatment. But how useful........ Read more »

Ross R, & Janiszewski PM. (2008) Is weight loss the optimal target for obesity-related cardiovascular disease risk reduction?. The Canadian journal of cardiology. PMID: 18787733

March 8, 2010
10:05 AM
138 views

Exercise and Body Weight

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Image by atomicjeep

I came across a very interesting article in the Ottawa Citizen this weekend, unpleasantly titled "For Canada's obese, exercise alone isn't going to cut it". The crux of the article is this - exercise will not help you lose weight. Every few months it seems that this issue pops up, including a cover article in TIME magazine last year, which Peter has previously dissected. This is a complicated issue, and given the sensational title, I wasn't expecting much from the Cit........ Read more »

Church, T., Earnest, C., Skinner, J., & Blair, S. (2007) Effects of Different Doses of Physical Activity on Cardiorespiratory Fitness Among Sedentary, Overweight or Obese Postmenopausal Women With Elevated Blood Pressure: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 297(19), 2081-2091. DOI: 10.1001/jama.297.19.2081

Ross R, Dagnone D, Jones PJ, Smith H, Paddags A, Hudson R, & Janssen I. (2000) Reduction in obesity and related comorbid conditions after diet-induced weight loss or exercise-induced weight loss in men. A randomized, controlled trial. Annals of internal medicine, 133(2), 92-103. PMID: 10896648

March 8, 2010
12:04 AM
43 views

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) for Fat Loss: "Fallacy and Hazard"

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Photo by Todd Huffman.

One of the great things about this site is that people often bring products or research to our attention that we otherwise might have missed. This occurred yesterday in the comments section of Peter's recent post on Acai berry scams, when one of our readers brought up the use of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) in the treatment of obesity. The website that we were provided smacks of weight loss gimmickry - notably the promise of an obesity "cure" and "near 100% ........ Read more »

Lijesen GK, Theeuwen I, Assendelft WJ, & Van Der Wal G. (1995) The effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in the treatment of obesity by means of the Simeons therapy: a criteria-based meta-analysis. British journal of clinical pharmacology, 40(3), 237-43. PMID: 8527285

March 7, 2010
11:59 PM
82 views

Ten Simple Ways to Increase Your Physical Activity

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Photo by pugetsoundphotowalks.

Regardless of your shape or size, physical activity has been shown to add years to your life, and life to your years. But believe it or not, the benefits of physical activity are not restricted to exercise performed in the gym. In fact, one of the easiest ways to improve your health may be through increasing the amount of low intensity physical activity you perform throughout the day. For example, simply increasing the number of steps that you take each day is ........ Read more »

Ekelund, U., Brage, S., Froberg, K., Harro, M., Anderssen, S., Sardinha, L., Riddoch, C., & Andersen, L. (2006) TV Viewing and Physical Activity Are Independently Associated with Metabolic Risk in Children: The European Youth Heart Study. PLoS Medicine, 3(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030488

Lachapelle, U., & Frank, L. (2009) Transit and Health: Mode of Transport, Employer-Sponsored Public Transit Pass Programs, and Physical Activity. Journal of Public Health Policy. DOI: 10.1057/jphp.2008.52

February 26, 2010
12:17 PM
70 views

Workplace Interventions Increase Employee Physical Activity Levels

by Peter Janiszewski, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Although it is widely recommended that adults attain at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on most days of the week, over half of Americans (51.9%) and Canadians (51.0%) fail to meet this minimum threshold. While physicians may also counsel their at-risk patients regarding physical activity, these patients seldom adopt the recommended behavior. Thus, while we currently know that physical activity is good for most people, we don’t have the vaguest idea how to get most ........ Read more »

DISHMAN, R., DEJOY, D., WILSON, M., & VANDENBERG, R. (2009) Move to ImproveA Randomized Workplace Trial to Increase Physical Activity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 36(2), 133-141. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.09.038

February 19, 2010
01:25 PM
97 views

The Breakfast of Champions!

by Peter Janiszewski in Obesity Panacea

It is often suggested that breakfast consumption is key facet of a healthful diet, especially when attempting to lose weight. However, while breakfast may be ‘the most important meal of the day’ the composition of that breakfast must not be overlooked.

Particularly, diets high in fiber are known to be associated with better control of body weight as well as glucose homeostasis. For example, a prior meta-analysis suggests that consumption of greater than 14 g/d of dietary fiber for........ Read more »

Hamedani, A., Akhavan, T., Samra, R., & Anderson, G. (2009) Reduced energy intake at breakfast is not compensated for at lunch if a high-insoluble-fiber cereal replaces a low-fiber cereal. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.26827

February 10, 2010
10:52 AM
89 views

Chocolate Milk: The Ideal Post-Exercise Drink?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

For anyone who has spent any time around a gym or even around fervent gym goers, you have probably heard the adage that chocolate milk is the ideal drink of choice post exercise to aid in recovery. In fact, dairy companies have put out commercials advertising the purported athletic benefits of drinking chocolate milk post exercise. I must admit that I personally love a 500ml carton of chocolate milk after my workouts. But is there any evidence to support all the hype?

Now, before I go any fur........ Read more »

Karp JR, Johnston JD, Tecklenburg S, Mickleborough TD, Fly AD, & Stager JM. (2006) Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 16(1), 78-91. PMID: 16676705

February 8, 2010
11:55 AM
99 views

Nintendo Wii - Is It Really Physical Activity?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Last Friday, Peter wrote a post about Wii-related injuries which generated some interesting discussion. Essentially, some readers felt that we were being too hard on the Wii, with one commenter going so far as to suggest that the post was "anti-Wii" (hard to dispute, given that the post was focused on Wii-related injuries!). Although we've mentioned the Wii in passing on Obesity Panacea before, we've never had a full discussion of the pros and cons, and I thought that this would be an excellen........ Read more »

Graves, L., Stratton, G., Ridgers, N., & Cable, N. (2007) Comparison of energy expenditure in adolescents when playing new generation and sedentary computer games: cross sectional study. BMJ, 335(7633), 1282-1284. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39415.632951.80

Daley, A. (2009) Can Exergaming Contribute to Improving Physical Activity Levels and Health Outcomes in Children?. PEDIATRICS, 124(2), 763-771. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-2357

February 5, 2010
11:28 AM
113 views

The Dangers of Exergaming

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

The whole world of exergaming (using video games as a means to get exercise) really came to the forefront when the Nintendo Wii first came out, complete with remotes that you actually had to move in space rather than just pushing a button or two. In time they also added a balance board as part of the Wii Fit game series which involved your whole body and not just your hands. More recently, EA sports created a new series of active games for the Nintendo Wii (Wii Active) which uses a legstrap for ........ Read more »

Eley, K. (2010) A Wii Fracture. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(5), 473-474. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc0909544

February 3, 2010
11:45 AM
88 views

Canadian Adults: Remarkably Less Healthy Than 30 Years Ago

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Last Friday I discussed the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), which I feel is among the most important surveys in the world of health research (along with its American counterpart, the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey). The CHMS is nationally representative and has directly measured physical activity and physical fitness, not to mention every type of medical test under the sun, which allows researchers to examine questions that would just not be possible any other way. ........ Read more »

Shields, M, Tremblay, MS, Laviolette, M, Craig, CL, Janssen, I, & Connor Gorber, S. (2010) Fitness of Canadian adults: Results from the 2007-2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Health Reports, 21(1), 1-15. info:/

January 29, 2010
11:45 AM
117 views

Canadian Kids - Heavier and Less Fit Than in 1981

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Image by Mike Baird.
For a couple weeks now I have been waiting to discuss a very important new paper published on data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). For nerds researchers like Peter and myself the CHMS is just about the coolest thing ever. I'm going to go into a few of the many reasons as to why it's so great, but if you're willing to take my word for it, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

The CHMS is a nationally representative survey of 5,000 Canadians, whic........ Read more »

Mark S Tremblay, Margot Shields, Manon Laviolette, Cora L. Craig, Ian Janssen, & Sarah Connor Gorber. (2010) Fitness of Canadian Children and Youth: Results from the 2007-2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Health Reports, 21(1), 1-7. info:/

January 20, 2010
10:09 PM
110 views

Lots of junk in your trunk: good for health?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Sir Mix-A-Lot once rapped:

“I like big butts and I cannot lie; You other brothers can't deny that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung!”

Not sure how often this happens, but this may be the first time that a song predicted the outcome of future scientific research.

Very recently, a review published in the International Journal of Obesity has created quite the media buzz – I even caught a joke about the study featured in the Weeken........ Read more »

Manolopoulos, K., Karpe, F., & Frayn, K. (2010) Gluteofemoral body fat as a determinant of metabolic health. International Journal of Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2009.286

Janiszewski, P., Kuk, J., & Ross, R. (2008) Is the reduction of lower-body subcutaneous adipose tissue associated with elevations in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease?. Diabetologia, 51(8), 1475-1482. DOI: 10.1007/s00125-008-1058-0

January 6, 2010
11:45 AM
131 views

Reduced Sleep Means Reduced Physical Activity

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

In the past, I have mentioned that physical activity and sleep time are positively related - the more physical activity you perform, the more sleep you are likely to get. Now most of these past studies have been observational, so we have a bit of a chicken and egg problem. By that I mean that we don't know whether:

A) Sleep deprivation causes reductions in physical activity,
B) High levels of physical activity make people sleepier, or
C) Some combination of A & B

Fortunately, an in........ Read more »

Schmid, S., Hallschmid, M., Jauch-Chara, K., Wilms, B., Benedict, C., Lehnert, H., Born, J., & Schultes, B. (2009) Short-term sleep loss decreases physical activity under free-living conditions but does not increase food intake under time-deprived laboratory conditions in healthy men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 90(6), 1476-1482. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.27984

December 21, 2009
09:20 AM
190 views

Holiday Weight Gain: Fact or Fiction?

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

Today I'd like to revisit an issue which we first reported on last January, and which unfortunately appears to be happening again this holiday season. Several of our colleagues attend a major Canadian fitness chain (I have decided not to post the name yet, but it shouldn't be too hard to guess) which has a poster of a chubby gingerbread man on the wall throughout the holidays (both in 2008 and again this year). Under the gingerbread man is a caption that reads "The average perso........ Read more »

Yanovski JA, Yanovski SZ, Sovik KN, Nguyen TT, O'Neil PM, & Sebring NG. (2000) A prospective study of holiday weight gain. The New England journal of medicine, 342(12), 861-7. PMID: 10727591

December 18, 2009
12:25 PM
171 views

Santa Claus: Advocating an Unhealthy Lifestyle?

by Peter Janiszewski, PhD (Cand.), MSc in Obesity Panacea

So suggests an intriguing and witty editorial in the British Medical Journal.

Given Santa’s tremendous popularity, particularly among children, the authors argue the public should become aware of some of the less-than-ideal lifestyle practices apparently advocated by jolly St. Nick.

Their basic thesis is the following: “Santa’s behaviour and public image are at odds with contemporary accepted public health messages.”... Read more »

Grills, N., & Halyday, B. (2009) Santa Claus: a public health pariah?. BMJ, 339(dec16 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b5261

December 16, 2009
11:40 AM
204 views

Too Much TV Reduces the Benefits of Physical Activity

by Travis Saunders, MSc in Obesity Panacea

One of my personal interests is the relationship between sedentary time (e.g. the amount of time that we spend sitting) and chronic disease risk. Several interesting papers have come out in the past few years suggesting that spending too much time sitting down is a risk factor for obesity, chronic disease, and even death, independent of physical activity levels. In other words, no matter how physically active you are, the more time you spend sitting, the greater your risk of death and disease......... Read more »

Dunton, G., Berrigan, D., Ballard-Barbash, R., Graubard, B., & Atienza, A. (2009) Joint associations of physical activity and sedentary behaviors with body mass index: results from a time use survey of US adults. International Journal of Obesity, 33(12), 1427-1436. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2009.174

December 11, 2009
11:15 AM
165 views

Obese, But Metabolic Healthy Individuals: at Lower Risk for Death

by Peter Janiszewski, PhD (Cand.), MSc in Obesity Panacea

Very recently, an interesting study was published looking at the risk of early mortality among metabolically-healthy obese individuals – a topic we’ve covered on a number of occasions on Obesity Panacea. The authors of this landmark study published in the journal Diabetes Care are actually close friends of ours (Dr. Jennifer Kuk and Dr. Christopher Ardern), and both are alumni of Queen’s university. Now that the media frenzy surrounding their recent study has subsided, Dr. Kuk ........ Read more »

Kuk, J., & Ardern, C. (2009) Are Metabolically Normal but Obese Individuals at Lower Risk for All-Cause Mortality?. Diabetes Care, 32(12), 2297-2299. DOI: 10.2337/dc09-0574

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