High Altitude Fat Camp?
Jun 11, 2004 20: 42 EST
These guys stole my idea! I've heard plenty of folks talk about that other bene of climbing and hiking at altitude -- the way the weight just melts off effortlessly. For serious athletes and elite climbers, weight loss is the enemy, but for many trekkers, a nice little perk. A few years ago I joked that we should run a high dollar fat camp to raise money for our clinic -- "eat all the pringles and chocolate bars you want, and STILL lose weight!" Well, turns out it's not a joke, at least the part about easy weight loss.
The abstracts are out for the upcoming VI World Congress on Mountain Medicine & High Altitude Physiology, and among those to be presented at the meeting in Lhasa in August is "PROGRESS IN STUDYING WEIGHT LOSS AT HIGH ALTITUDE AND ITS POTENTIAL APPLICATION IN PATIENTS WITH OBESITY" by Rili Ge, et al. The authors note that obesity is becoming a major disease in developed countries; it is well known that exposure to high altitude can cause weight loss, which might be used as an alternative way to treat patients with obesity. Their study explored the relationship of body weight loss induced by exposure to high altitude (4600 M) and its potential application in treating patients with obesity comparing those from sea level to those from moderate altitude. They found that the average weight loss for subjects from sea level was 10.2% (highest was 29%), compared to only 2.3% for those from 2000 m. The authors conclude that for people going to high altitude from sea level, the percentage of weight lossat high altitude is positively related to their BMI and that perhaps these folks could benefit from fitness centers at high altitude.
Add in the obligatory gastrointestinal upset en route to altitude, and this idea could become a real cash cow? (Sorry for the bad pun.)
|
|
Feature Stories |
|
Latest News |
more news |
|
|
|
|
|
