An imbalance between food intake and energy expenditure may often trigger obesity and the best way to tackle it is performing routine exercise. Muscular activity produced by exercise probably aids in burning calories and maintaining a healthy weight. According to a latest research led by the University of Sydney, exercise can greatly elevate cellular metabolism and empower the body to burn calories even while at rest.
It was observed that low levels of physical activity like brisk walk for 30 minutes every day is essential for turning on the precise molecular switches, further making the cells metabolize and burn energy appropriately. Experts enlighten that in humans and other mammals, the metabolism of a resting body increases as temperatures of the atmosphere lower below 30 to 35 degrees Celsius. So it can be assumed that resting bodies burn more energy at cooler conditions, which is below 30 degrees Celsius. Since most humans and animals are prone to face temperatures below this level, the body can be stimulated to burn energy at everyday ‘cold’ temperatures.
Associate Professor Frank Seebacher and PhD student Elsa Glanville from the School of Biological Sciences and first author of the study, shared, “Our research using a mammal model shows a sedentary lifestyle is doubly bad and may lead to weight gain because energy is not used up by muscular activity and metabolic signalling is disrupted, which reduces the body’s ability to burn energy.”
Experiments on wild native Australian bush rats called as Rattus fuscipes were conducted by the researchers. The tests revealed that cold conditions possibly stimulate a rise in metabolism but only in the presence of exercise. Rats exercising for half an hour each day displayed a metabolic response to cold, and burnt more energy. On the other hand, in rats performing no exercise at all metabolism and energy consumption was not stimulated even after decreasing the air temperature to even 12 degrees Celsius.
The research highlights a probable interaction between exercise and temperature on cellular metabolism. It was suggested that physical activity has a subtle effect on the body’s energy expenditure by opening up various cryptic genes known for regulating the rate of cellular metabolism. Light exercise every day may result in elevation of metabolism at temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius.
The research is published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.