In Canada, Obesity Rates Ready for Take Off

The high court of Canada made a ruling recently that undermines obese people’s inclination to lose weight. Why? Because airlines are now obligated to grant obese people two seats for the price of one.

How airlines are going to legislate this is anyone’s guess (What’s the cutoff for how much one has to weigh to get the two-for-one deal?), but such a ruling gives obese people who are frequent fliers a reason to want to stay obese. After all, as anyone who frequents commercial airlines, sitting on a plane for hours on end is   uncomfortable and having two seats rather than one certainly makes for more leg room.

This is not to suggest that I’m not sympathetic to obese people’s plight. Not at all. I know that for many obese people, they are overweight at no fault of their own due to certain conditions that make them pre-disposed to being severely overweight. Further, the severely obese are at an added disadvantage because it is more difficult for them to lose weight than for those who are looking to lose a few.

But for those who will not be deterred in their desire to lose weight – despite the 2-for-1 deal the airlines are now being forced to offer – a new study offers guidance on how to burn fat efficiently.

Remember the old Atkins diet plan? You remember, the one that suggested high protein diets – even if they’re from health assassins like bacon – would help lose weight? Well, researchers from South Wales show that such a diet, for the most part, is particularly effective for the obese.

I say “for the most part” because I, nor the researchers, advise choosing high protein foods that are high in saturated fat. That’s just counterintuitive. But there is evidence suggesting that foods high in protein make for a more efficient way of burning fat. Past research that came to similar conclusions believe this to be the case because of protein’s ability to suppress one’s appetite better than carbohydrates.

For the study itself, researchers recruited 18 participants, a quarter of whom were obese, the others either overweight or with a normal weight. Over a three-day period, the participants ate foods that were either fairly equal in the ratio of protein to carbohydrates or were weighted more toward carbohydrates than protein (the traditional food pyramid states that more carbohydrates be consumed than protein; for this study, two of the three days had the participants eating approximately equivalent rates of protein to carbohydrates).

After each meal, the researchers were able to determine just how quickly each participant’s body was burning fat through various testing procedures. While the normal weight participants burned fat quicker and more efficiently when there were more carbohydrates in the meal than protein, the findings were reversed when the protein to carbohydrate ratio was roughly equal. In other words, it was the obese that burned fat more efficiently than normal weight participants following a meal.

Again, it’s important to remember that this study is not an endorsement of the Atkins diet. The participants sources for protein were all either low in fat (eggs were included in diet) or lean, in the case of the protein consumed.

More studies are in the offing on how effective high protein diets are in helping obese people actually lose weight (the focus was how efficiently fat was burned following meals), but this study bodes well for all those who want a better lifestyle and not a more comfortable seat on Canadian Air.