Figure 1: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-ofadults-defined-as-obese
Is it temperature or income which affects the percentage of obese people in countries?
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t is commonly known that people are healthy because of the lifestyle they live and the amount of exercise they do. However, it is not commonly known that the weather can influence how effective exercise can be, and whether people have an advantage based on where they live and what the weather is like. In this article, I will be exploring whether there is a link between fitness and climate, and why people living in colder climates are potentially fitter. When answering this question, we must first understand why there could be a link. One of the most effective and common ways of burning calories and staying fit is by exercising. People exercise passively walking every day, running, and cycling, or they could specially exercise, for example by going to the gym or swimming or playing outdoor sports. Whatever,
Veylan it is, calories will be burnt when doing these various exercises. However, it has been found that exercising in colder conditions could result in more calories being burnt, which leads to the question of whether people living in colder temperatures would be fitter and less obese. The human body has two types of fat, white and brown. White fat (white adipose tissue) is the most commonly known fat, as white fat is what causes obesity, which leads to other health problems. It stores energy in large fat droplets, and the accumulation of fat keeps one warm by giving insulation. Brown fat (brown adipose tissue (BAT)), is more compact and stores energy in smaller spaces compared to white fat. The reason why it is brown is because it is filled with mitochondria. Thermogenesis is where the body generates
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heat to keep warm. There are two types of thermogenesis: shivering and non- shivering. In shivering thermogenesis, the body shivers. Kinetic energy is required for the body to make shivering movements, and this is gained from the conversion of ATP to ADP, and through this process heat is produced. This does not burn many calories at all. Nonshivering thermogenesis happens in BAT. The burning of brown fat not only produces heat, but burns many calories. Clearly, having more brown fat will result in more calories being burnt, so people with higher levels of brown fat will burn calories more easily, hence they more likely not be obese. One of the way of having more BAT in the body is by being in colder temperatures, as the colder temperatures stimulates stem cells to divide and form brown fat
