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Exercise interventions and epidemiological approaches in obesity

Published on June 30, 2026   25 min

A selection of talks on Physiology & Anatomy

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0:00
I am Professor Jennifer Kuk from York University, and today I will be talking about exercise interventions and epidemiological approaches in obesity.
0:12
We all know that obesity is caused by a long-term positive energy balance. What this means is that your energy intake is greater than your energy expenditure, which leads to the storage of energy in the form of fat.
0:28
Traditionally, things like portion sizes, processed foods, food insecurity, and foods that are high in calories are thought to be responsible for this positive energy balance that we see over time.
0:42
However, on the other side of the equation, we know that there have been modern changes to our environment that has led to decreases in our energy expenditure, such as cars, modern-day conveniences, screens, sedentary jobs such as desk jobs, and then the lack of access to physical activity options. Then there's the large dislike of physical activity that we see in many individuals, leading people to not be physically active if they are not forced to.
1:16
When we take a look at women's household management energy expenditures, we can see that over time, from the 1960s to 2010 onwards, we can see that the energy expenditure that women use just to manage the household has declined. This is true for women who are not employed or employed, and so we see this universal decline in energy expenditure, and we could apply this to many facets of our life as well, in terms of transport, leisure activity. We're seeing that because of these modern-day conveniences, things are requiring less energy to do.

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Exercise interventions and epidemiological approaches in obesity

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