Article Title
Activity and Diet Induced Thermogenesis
Abstract
Although physical activity and a balanced diet are two important factors which help prevent obesity, the body itself has defense mechanisms known as diet and activity induced thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process in which excess energy is dissipated as heat rather than storing the energy as lipids or carbohydrates. The investigation determines the relationship between oxygen consumption (VO2) and rates of diet and activity induced thermogenesis.
It was hypothesized that VO2 and rates of diet and activity induced thermogenesis would yield in a positive correlation. To prove this hypothesis, two different experimental investigations were carried out. For activity induced; data allowing the calculation of VO2 max values for a range of test subjects was collected using the Cooper Test. These VO2 max values were then used to show the increase in oxygen consumption from V02 at rest to the VO2 maximum. For diet induced thermogenesis, a study by Eric S. Bachman et al. studying the importance of the thermogenesis in fighting obesity in mice was used to emphasize how important the diet induced thermogenic processes are. In turn, the experiment used also showed the importance of VO2 in carrying out the diet induced thermogenesis.
From the Cooper Test the calculated values from the data showed an increase in VO2 demonstrating activity induced thermogenesis at work. Lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation, all which reduce obesity, were seen to have an increased rate as well as a requirement of higher VO2. Looking at the second method, results showed that mice without the receptor that induces diet thermogenesis suffered greater weight gain. Also, VO2 increase was seen to not happen in these mice. This proves that diet induced thermogenesis requires an increase in VO2. Thus in conclusion, both diet and activity induced thermogenesis rely on an increase in VO2.