Book review: Physical Activity and Obesity (Claude Bouchard)
Obesity is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, including:
- Cardiovascular disease: Obesity is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, which are the leading causes of death worldwide.
- Diabetes: Obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, which can cause blindness, limb amputations, and the need for dialysis.
- Cancer: Obesity is associated with some cancers, including endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon.
- Musculoskeletal disorders: Obesity can lead to musculoskeletal disorders including osteoarthritis
Obesity is a complex disease caused by many factors, including: genetics, family history, eating patterns, lack of sleep or physical activity, and some medicine.
Obesity is such a complicated topic that you cannot really understand it with out a lot of studying and good teachers. We need to understand obesity in order to prevent it which means we need good books to learn from written by experts in the field with decades of experience and research behind them.
Claude Bouchard is such a person with decades of experience in the exercise science and sports medicine communities. He has many books to his name exploring the benefits of physical activity and this book is an extensive summary of the state of knowledge in the disciple at the time. There are more recent versions, this is the one I could afford at the time. Each chapter is written by an expert in the area with professor Bouchard acting as editor.
This is the kind of book you study at degree level and beyond and if that scares you don’t worry. Either find a friend who can help you learn with it or get in contact with me so we can figure out how to help you understand what this great reference has to offer.
Synopsis
Physical Activity and Obesity provides the exercise science and sports medicine communities with a much-needed reference that addresses the key issues concerning the link between physical activity (or inactivity) and obesity.
Each of the books 19 chapters is written by one or more experts in the field. These prominent scientists and clinicians provide clear explanations of the concepts, research techniques and results presented. The authors provide up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative discussions on the various aspects of physical activity and obesity, and the supporting data is reviewed, tabulated, and diagrammatically illustrated.
Physical Activity and Obesity is an indispensable resource for researchers, medical practitioners, public health policy makers and students. in fact, it’s an excellent text for anyone who wants to better understand the role of physical activity in the overall energy balance equation and its influence on the health status of the obese.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Claude Bouchard, PhD Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A.
Physical Activity and Obesity is the result of a perceived need for such a book in the exercise science and sports medicine communities. Obesity and a physically inactive lifestyle are two of the most prevalent risk factors for common chronic diseases in the Western world. They both carry enormous health and economic costs. They are both recognized as major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and other debilitating con-ditions. Estimates of the number of deaths attributable in part to obesity in the United States alone reach about 300,000 per year, a figure that is comparable to the number of yearly deaths thought to be attributable to sedentarism. A physically inactive lifestyle is a risk factor for weight gain with age. Moreover, obese individuals are generally very sedentary, as their excess body mass constitutes a major obstacle in adopting a more physically active lifestyle. Furthermore, sedentarism in overweight or obese persons increases the probability that they will be affected by the common morbidities of excess weight or that they will die prematurely.
This book has been written with the collaboration of the most prominent scientists and clinicians in the field. The book is organized into 4 parts and 19 chapters. It could have been a much larger volume, but an effort was made to focus on the most important issues and a size limit was imposed on the manuscript of each contributing author.
Part I provides an overview of the current obesity epidemic, its implications for morbidity and mortality rates, and its economic burden.
Part Il includes chapters on the determinants of obesity and the assessments of energy expenditure components and dietary habits. It also deals with energy balance issues and the role of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle metabolism and their characteristics in the obese state.
Part IlI provides an overview of the role of physical activity in the prevention and treatment of obesity for various population groups, including the severely obese. It also addresses the topic of weight loss.
Part IV focuses on the role of physical activity in the morbidities of obesity and with respect to the health status of the obese. How to modify the physical activity habits of the obese is also discussed.
Topics
Topics include:
Part I: The Obesity Epidemic
- Chapter 1 Introduction Claude Bouchard 3
- Chapter 2 The Current Epidemic of Obesity Jacob C. Seidell 21
- Chapter 3 Overweight, Mortality, and Morbidity George A. Bray 31
- Chapter 4 The Cost of Obesity and Sedentarism in the United States Graham A. Colditz and Anna Mariani 55
Part II: The Biological and Behavioral Determinants of Obesity 67
- Chapter 5 The Determinants of Obesity Arline D. Salbe and Eric Ravussin 69
- Chapter 6 Assessment of Human Energy Expenditure Christopher L. Melby, Richard C. Ho, and James O. Hill 103
- Chapter 7 The Assessment of Energy and Nutrient Intake in Humans Klaas R. Westerterp 133
- Chapter 8 Human Energy and Nutrient Balance Isabelle Dionne and Angelo Tremblay 151
- Chapter 9 Adipose Tissue Metabolism and Obesity Paul Poirier and Robert H. Eckel 181
- Chapter 10 Skeletal Muscle Metabolism and Obesity Jean-Aimé Simoneau and David E. Kelley 201
Part III: Physical Activity in the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity 211
- Chapter 11 Physical Activity and Body Composition in Children and Adolescents Bernard Gutin and Paule Barbeau 213
- Chapter 12 Physical Activity Level and Weight Control in Adults Andrew M. Prentice and Susan A. Jebb 247
- Chapter 13 Physical Activity Level and Weight Control in Older Citizens Eric T. Poehlman 263
- Chapter 14 Physical Activity Level and Weight Control During Pregnancy 279 Stephan Rössner
- Chapter 15 Physical Activity Level and the Treatment of Severe Obesity 295 Walker S. Carlos Poston, Richard R. Suminski, and John P. Foreyt
- Chapter 16 Physical Activity and Maintenance of Weight Loss: Physiological and Psychological Mechanisms 311 Christina Wood Baker and Kelly D. Brownell
Part IV: Physical Activity, Fitness, and Health in the Obese State 329
- Chapter 17 Physical Activity and the Metabolic Complications of Obesity Jean-Pierre Després and Benoît Lamarche
- Chapter 18 Is It Possible to Be Overweight or Obese and Fit and Healthy? 355 Suzanne Brodney, Steven N. Blair, and Chong Do Lee
- Chapter 19 Changing Lifestyle: Moving From Sedentary to Active 372 Rena R. Wing and John M. Jakicic Index About the Editor 390 400
Books and Articles
Dr Bouchard has published an extensive list of books and papers. A few of which have been reviewed on Fit2Thrive
Claude Bouchard Phd: Physical activity and Obesity
Book review: Physical Activity and Health (2007) Claude Bouchard, Steven Blair, William Haskell
