A new study by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has concluded that being overweight is what causes people to be sedentary and feel tired, and not the other way around .
To reach this resolution, the neuroscientists used 32 laboratory rats that were divided into two groups of diets that followed for six months: the first group was subjected to a standard diet with little processed foods such as fish or corn; the second group followed a diet of highly processed foods , with low quality and with much more sugar, that is to say, a simile of “junk food”.
In just three months, the researchers observed that the 16 animals that had followed the second diet were significantly overweight, and that at the same time, they had become lazier than the rats that were being fed more natural products.
At six months the diets were exchanged for a period of 9 days. Although the overweight rats began to eat healthier, they did not lose weight or become more active. In the same way, the rats that had followed a diet of little processed foods did not have a significant increase in weight or became lazier, with which the researchers conclude that “junk food” is not only responsible for us being overweight, but also of becoming lazy beings . Therefore, being fat due to our diet does not make us lazy, but it is precisely what we eat that causes us fatigue and reluctance.
The study has been published in the journal Physiology and Behavior .
