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International Journal of Development Research

ISSN: 2230-9926 Vol. 11, Issue, 02, pp.44645-44649, February, 2021
https://doi.org/10.37118/ijdr.21129.02.2021

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

OBESITY AND OVERWEIGHT BETWEEN SEDENTARY AND ACTIVE

PEOPLE WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE JOINING A GYM
Soares, Arthur Rizzi a-c,*, Borges, Gilson Caixeta b, Crisfe, DANIELA, Zechin, Emerson José a-c, Bessa,
Robertad, Silva, Giuliano Robertod, Pessoa-Filho, Dalton Mullere and Neiva, Cassiano Merussia
aMetabolism and exercise physiology Lab (MEFE), Faculty of Science - São Paulo State University, Brazil
bPhysical Education School – Patos de Minas College - Minas Gerais, Brazil
cPhysical Education School – University of RibeirãoPreto – São Paulo, Brazil
dPhysical Education School – University José do RosárioVelano – Minas Gerais, Brazil
eHuman Sports Performance Optimization Lab(LABOREH), Faculty of Science –

São Paulo State University, Brazil

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article
ArticleHistory:
History: This study aims to analyze the distribution between both the regular practice of unsupervised
th
Received
Received 07 December,
xxxxxx, 2019 2020 physical activity and physical inactivity among newcomers to a gym, their anthropometric
Received
Received in
in revised
revised form
form profiles, and a possible correlation with obesity or overweight. The participants were 217 subjects
th
09 December,
xxxxxxxx, 2019 2020 with an average age of 29.89 ± 2.88 years. The sample was stratified by gender (66 men and 151
th
Accepted
Accepted 24 January, 2019
xxxxxxxxx, 2021
th women) and subsequently sub-classified by history of regular but unsupervised physical activity
Published
Published online
online 24 February,
xxxxx, 2019 2021 or physical inactivity (72 active and 145 inactive). Anthropometric measurements of body mass
Key Words: index (BMI) and waist/hip ratio were performed. According to the results, men who joined the
gym had a BMI close to women, although they were classified into different anthropometric
Sedentary lifestyle. Obesity.
Waist/hip ratio. Body Mass Index.
categories, being men classified as overweight and women as eutrophic. However, the results do
not indicate any advantage for practitioners of unsupervised physical activity when compared to
sedentary practitioners.
*Corresponding author:
Soares, Arthur Rizzi

Copyright © 2021, Soares, Arthur Rizzi, Borges et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Citation: Soares, Arthur Rizzi, Borges, Gilson Caixeta, Crisfe, DANIEL, Zechin, Emerson José et al. “Obesity and overweight between sedentary and
active people without professional guidance joining a gym”, International Journal of Development Research, 11, (02), 44645-44649.

INTRODUCTION In this spectrum, BMI is often used to determine an individual's

degree of trophic normality or degree of obesity, while WHR is an
index that provides information about body fat distribution in relation
to upper or lower body fat concentration, a condition that is strongly
The rise in obesity affects both the male and female population and
associated with CNCDs and early mortality. Regarding the practice of
may be induced to a greater or lesser extent due to genetic
good behavioural habits diet is more effective in reducing body
inheritance, but especially when such factors suffer from behavioral
weight, while exercise is more efficient in reducing fat (Tremblay,
effects of potentiating lifestyle habits, such as poor diet and physical
1994). Intense physical activity usually leads to a temporary
inactivity (Ministério Da Saúde, 2013; Ballor, 1991) Excessive body
suppression in food intake, probably because of catecholamine
fat substantially increases the risk of morbidity due to chronic non-
secretion (adrenaline and noradrenaline), with a resulting increase in
communicable diseases (CNCDs) with special attention to
blood glucose and mobilization of fat deposits (Ballor, 1991), while
hypertension, type II diabetes, vesicular disease, osteoarthritis,
other studies show that exercise leads to moderation and practice for
dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease (CAD), sleep apnea, breathing
short periods of time, recovery occurs within minutes without
problems, and some forms of cancer (Monteiro, 1999). However,
producing compensatory effects on metabolism, such as excess
body fat percentage is not the absolute or the most widely used
postexercise oxygen consumpition (EPOC) and so is unable to
indicator for estimating obesity and its health risk scores (Rezende,
mobilize body fat deposits or even produce the control of food intake:
2007).
hunger suppression (Bahr, 1991).
44646 Soares, Arthur Rizzi, Borges et al. Obesity and overweight between sedentary and active people without professional guidance joining a gym

Thus, we can understand that professional supervision in physical Thus, we suspect that this percentage difference between men and
training programs in an appropriate environment seems to be of the women can be represented by the low accuracy of BMI in estimating
utmost importance to achieve the benefits in weight control, while on fat mass. When the study participants were divided into physically
the contrary, the unsupervised practice of physical exercises in non- active and sedentary respectively, there was almost absolute similarity
specific environments may not be ineffective, besides making the between the different categories of classification of eutrophic and
practitioner vulnerable to various risks. The objective of the present overweight, but not for obesity, which showed higher percentages of
study was to determine the prevalence of obesity and WHR indexes obese among active participants (5.56 %) and compared to sedentary
as well as their comparisons and possible associations and ones (1.38 %), like showed on Figure 2. A higher percentage was
correlations between young adult individuals of both genders, who observed among physically active individuals in the obese group
were previously active but without professional guidance, or compared to the sedentary group, we know that physical exercise has
sedentary. a positive impact on the increase of fat free mass (Liberman, 2017).
Collaborating in such finding, we suspect that due to the low accuracy
METHODOLOGY in estimating fat tissue by BMI, individuals with higher fat-free mass
may be allocated in an obese classification (Goossens, 2017).
Comparison between the male and female subgroups of the
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of percentages in the different subclasses of risk factors related to WHR,
217 volunteer subjects, male and female, joining a gym in the city of are showed in Figure 3.
Patos de Minas (in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais). The
participants were between 26 to 35 years old, with an average age of The frequency distribution of WHR for male gym newcomers,
29.89 ± 2.88 years, of which 151 were female and 66 male. From this distributed in the different subclasses of risk factors, behaved as
sample, 72 subjects were considered physically active (33.2 %) and follows: 36.4 %, low risk (less than 0.84); 47 %, moderate risk (0.84-
145 sedentary (66.8 %). For the composition of the subgroups, 0.91); 12.1 %, high risk (0.92-0.96); and 4.6 %, very high risk
subjects who reported practicing systematic physical activity, even (greater than 0.96). There was a predominance (83.4 %) of the male
without professional guidance and supervision, at least twice a week, sample in the low and moderate classes. For females, the frequency
with an average time of 60 minutes each session in the six-month distribution of WHR in the different subclasses for risk factors was as
period before the beginning of the study, were considered physically follows: 32.4 %, low risk (less than 0.72); 49.7 % moderate risk
active at the time they joined the gym. Those who did not meet this (0.72-0.78); 11.3 %, high risk (0.79-0.84); and 6.6 %, very high risk
criterion were classified as sedentary. After being informed of the (greater than 0.84). There was a predominance (82.1 %) of female
study objective, the individuals signed the Free and Informed Consent subjects for the low and moderate risk classes. Analyzing WHR that
Form. This study was approved by the CEP-CONEP system and is in is associated with health risk factors, the study subjects showed
accordance with the norms of Resolution 466/12 of the National similar characteristics in relation to gender. For a high and very high
Health Council (Conselho Nacional de Saúde) on research involving risk of both male and female groups, the frequency obtained was
human subjects, under the CAAE Protocol: 51921315.0.0000.5143 16.7 % and 17.9 %, respectively. Corroborating with other studies,
No. 1,767,715 and Opinion. Anthropometric measurements of waist the use WHR is important in the analysis of overweight groups
circumferences were taken in duplicate, using the arithmetic mean of (Hollmann, 1997; Wuren, 2019) and WHR is more powerful in the
the values with an accuracy of 2 (two) millimeters. metabolic health analysis of obese individuals(14) and is therefore a
more effective measure. When each group, male and female, was
To measure weight and height, a Filizola® scale was used, with subdivided into physically active and sedentary categories, the results
precision of 100 g and 0.5 cm respectively. Measurements were made of comparisons between groups behaved differently in relation to
with men in only swimming shorts and women in shorts and tops or BMI values. In this case, a small but significant difference was found
bikini tops, and being barefoot. From these measurements, BMI was only between sedentary men and women with higher values for males
determined by the ratio of body mass (kg)/square of height (m2). The (Table 1), which does not allow us to infer any analysis on the
WHR ratio was identified by the ratio of the waist circumference possible effects of regular unsupervised exercise practice regarding
measurement obtained/hip measurement, both in centimeters (cm). this variable.
The statistical design of the study was elaborated into two distinct
stages. The first stage being purely descriptive of the numerical and Interestingly, while the sedentary male group has a higher BMI than
categorical data of the study, was performed by applying the the values found for the same category as the female group, the
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, to determine the normality of the sample female group has higher BMI values for the physically active
distribution, complemented by the Shapiro-Wilk test. In the second category. In addition, it was observed that physical activity for males
phase, comparisons and correlation were established between the may be responsible for lower BMI, while females behave exactly the
independent anthropometric variables evaluated and the subdivisions opposite. This confirms the finding that men respond better than
of the subgroups of active and sedentary people, using the two-way women to the effects of exercise on weight reduction (Ballor, 1991)
Anova test, complemented when necessary by the Bon-Ferroni test However, even with an apparent trend, BMI differences between
and Pearson's correlation coefficient test, respectively. For the study, categories in both genders as well as between men and women for the
a significance coefficient of p <0.05 was adopted. The application of physically active category were not statistically significant. On the
statistical tests was performed using the SPSS V. 17.1 statistical other hand it is necessary to add that the values found for both
package for iOS-MAC. categories in both genders, respectively, belong to the same BMI
score, being men classified as overweight and women as eutrophic.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION However, in obese children, BMI was not sensitive to discriminate
between high level of physical activity versus sedentary behavior
(Chaput et al., 2018), thus corroborating the findings of the present
Regarding BMI, men and women presented different indexes for study where BMI results did not differ significantly between
eutrofic, overweight and obese, like showed on Figure 1. The values physically active versus sedentary. The fact that the physically active
for the BMI show a significantly lower percentage of men (50%) group performs physical activity twice a week for 60 minutes may
compared to women (70.2%) for eutrophic conditions, a profile which have been the reason for no significant difference, since the World
is reversed when the distributions for overweight and obesity are Health Organization (WHO) suggests 150 to 300 minutes of moderate
compared, thus showing better BMI values for women. From this activity per week or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity (Bull,
observation we can infer that the low percentage of eutrophically 2020). When the WHR values are compared (Table 2), again a
classified men may be due to the difference in body composition significant difference was found between men and women, but now
between men and women (Schorr, Melanie, 2018). It is important to for both categories, which can actually be understood as the expected
point out that the BMI does not take into account the body results. However, a difference between the categories for males with
composition, which is a fat free mass, and therefore the BMI has little higher values for the sedentary category is also demonstrated.
strength to estimate the individual's fat tissue (Goossens, 2017).
44647 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 11, Issue, 02, pp.44645-44649, February, 2021
44648 Soares, Arthur Rizzi, Borges et al. Obesity and overweight between sedentary and active people without professional guidance joining a gym

The difference in WHR indexes found between males when Some conditions may have interfered with the result. Among them the
comparing physically active and sedentary individuals suggests the classification criterion for physically active, which took into account
hypothesis that even when not oriented and supervised, regular only the time but disregarded the intensity of this training. Neither
physical exercise has a reducing effect on WHR indexes. However, it were the weekly caloric intake, nor the body composition considered.
should be noted that in both categories (physically active and The authors suggest that further studies be conducted in this field.
sedentary), the values found fall within the same moderate risk score
range and thus, although presenting different numerical values, both Acknowledgements
categories are in the same risk condition for CNCDs. For female
participants, when divided into physically active and sedentary The authors thanks to FAPEMIG and FUNADESP.
categories, although numerical differences were observed between the
means, there was no significant difference, thus showing the absence
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