The USA scientists “programmed the mice for getting fat” by making changes on their genes. They fed them unlimitedly for 16 weeks and left them inactive. Then they were given a low fat and low calorie diet.
The scientists stated that, although beneficial, the diets had temporary effects and the lost weight is gained in the following weeks or months after leaving the diet and the solution remained in the sports followed every day after the diet ended.
The scientists stated that sports allows the body to use the body fats to meet the energy need and this reduced the appetite.
The mice could lose 14% of their weight. At the end of 16 weeks they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted and half of them were forced to do sports.
The active mice ate as much as the inactive mice but gained less weight. Besides, it was found out that the active mice burnt more fat in the morning and more carbohydrate (Glucose) in the evening. As time went by, these mice had less fat in their stomach and the feeding rate reduced.
The researchers underlined that the inactive mice tended to burn carbohydrate first and send the fatty food to their fat tissues and this caused an increase in their calorie storage because storing fat needs less energy than storing glucose.
Besides, they stated that burning glucose in the inactive mice increased the feeling of hunger and appetite and therefore emphasized that sports ensures burning fats primarily. The research, besides, showed that the hypothesis of the experts defending up to now that the number of the fat cells do not change but the volume of them change according to the weight was wrong because the inactive mice had new fat cells in their fat tissues. The scientists stated that these new cells accelerated the weight gaining process and accumulation of fat in the stomach in the inactive mice compared with the active ones.
Stating that signals are sent with regard to the necessity of taking some food after the diet, Paul MacLean, one of the researchers, expressed that most people did not turn a deaf ear to these psychological signals and started to eat more, as a result gained the lost weight back.