Leaner Teens Tend to Exercise More Vigorously: Study
Teenagers who are leaner with better physiques tend to get more vigorous physical activity than their peers, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia found.
"The leanest and fittest kids are the ones who have the most vigorous activity for longer periods of time," said Dr. Bernard Gutin, an exercise physiologist who was the study's lead author. "The implication is that you need to do vigorous activity if you want to be lean," he said in a statement published on the school's Web site.
Gutin and his colleagues fitted 421 students with a device called an accelerometer, which discriminates between light, moderate and vigorous activity. Cardiovascular fitness was measured by a treadmill test that, over a 5-day period, went progressively faster at an increasing incline. The students were also measured for the percentage of body fat they had.
Students with the lowest ratio of body fat to total weight were those who exercised most vigorously, the researchers said. Those who were measured most fit also took in more oxygen at a lower heart rate.
Results of the study appear in this month's issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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