Telegraph.co.uk
The average dog owner gets more exercise walking their pet than someone with a gym membership, a pet health care expert has claimed.

Researchers found animal lovers exercise their pet twice a day for 24 minutes each time – a total of five hours and 38 minutes a week.

On top of that, the average dog owner also takes their pet out on three long walks each week adding another two hours and 33 minutes to the total.

But in comparison, those without a dog spend an average of just one hour and 20 minutes per week exercising by going to the gym or heading out for a stroll or jog.

And almost half (47 per cent) of non-pet owners admit they do absolutely no exercise whatsoever.

A spokesperson for pet health care experts Bob Martin said the difference between the two was that going to the gym can feel like a chore while dogwalking can be far more enjoyable.

“A couple of short walks a day soon adds up and this research shows that it amounts to more time than people spend in the gym,” he said.

“And whilst gym-goers exercise inside an air-conditioned gym, dog walkers are able to rack up the miles and enjoy fresh air whilst admiring the Great British countryside.”

The study of 5,000 people, including 3,000 dog owners, revealed that 57 per cent of those see walking the dog as their main form of exercise. More than three quarters said they would rather take their dog for a walk than go to the gym.

A total of 86 per cent said they enjoyed taking their pet out each day, with just 22 per cent saying they sometimes see it as a chore.

But only 16 per cent of respondents said they enjoyed exercising in the gym, while almost 70 per cent considered it a chore.

The survey showed that having a dog to walk actually encourages regular exercise with 60 per cent of pet owners saying they always go for a walk with their dog – even when time is precious.

But 46 per cent of gym goers admit they often find other things to do to get out of doing exercise.

“With increasing focus on leading an active healthy lifestyle it seems that owning a dog makes us more healthy,” the Bob Martin spokesperson said.

“The Government recommends 30 minutes of moderate cardio vascular exercise 3-5 times per week and it’s encouraging to see that dog walkers are exceeding this target and enjoying it at the same time.”

By Daily Express Reporter

GIRLS start worrying about whether they are fat at just three, a study has found.

And one in three girls by the age of 11 have already tried dieting.

Pressure from friends and super-skinny celebrity role models are thought to be the biggest factors behind the rise in those worrying about their weight and shape.

The study, published online by the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, looked at whether stereotypical images of thin and beautiful women fuelled girls’ ­anxieties about their weight.

During research at the University of Central Florida, 121 girls aged three to six were asked how they felt about the way they looked.

Thirty one per cent almost always worried, while another 18 per cent sometimes worried.

A third of those quizzed said they would change their physical appearance, especially their weight or hair colour.

Professor Stacey Tantleff-Dunn, who led the study at the university, said: “We do need to help our children challenge the images of beauty, particularly thinness, that they idolise.”

By VERONICA LORRAINE
and CAROLINE IGGULDEN.  The Sun

NEARLY half of girls aged 11 to 16 say they are “dieting”, a disturbing survey revealed yesterday.

Youngsters are so fat-conscious that 12 per cent in the same age group are already thinking about having a gastric band fitted.

And girls as young as SEVEN say they want to be thinner.

Forty-two per cent of 11 to 16- year-olds admitted “watching what they eat or cutting out certain foods excessively”.

Meanwhile, 24 per cent of girls aged 16 to 21 say they would think about cosmetic surgery.

Five per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds are already considering BOTOX. Five per cent of seven to nine-year-old girls say they want to be slimmer - rising to 27 per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds.

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson said last night: “This report highlights the worrying number of teenage girls who are going on extreme diets.”

She added: “Today’s unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago.”

Girl Guiding UK polled more than 1,100 girls and young women - not drawn from the Guides movement - for the landmark report.

They were asked about their attitudes to body image, eating disorders, plastic surgery, binge drinking and sexual health. The survey also found that HALF of 11 to 16-year-olds have suffered from severe stress - rising to 75 per cent of those aged 16 to 21.

One third of girls aged seven to 16 say glamorous X Factor judge Cheryl Cole is the best role model for girls their age.

Cheryl, 26, told The Sun: “It’s a huge honour. It’s such an amazing feeling to inspire girls to get out there and try to achieve their dreams, whatever they may be.”

The research also shows 27 per cent of girls aged 11 to 16 have drunk so much they vomited or lost control. And more than a third of 16 to 21-year-olds admit having had unprotected sex.

Chief Guide Liz Burnley said: “In our centenary year we are proud to make this contribution to the policy debate on behalf of all girls, not just our members.”

By Fiona Macrae, MailOnline

One in three schoolchildren does less than an hour of exercise a week, a survey has found.

Many see it as a ‘chore’ that only the overweight need to do, while just one in eight gets the 60 minutes a day recommended for good health, according to the British Heart Foundation.

In contrast, more than half of children aged eight to 15 surveyed said they spent an hour or more a day chatting to friends on their mobile phone or social networking websites such as Facebook.

Overweight: Schoolchildren spend more time chatting to mates on their mobiles or on social-networking sites than they do exercising

A third of youngsters are overweight or obese, and experts predict that will rise to two-thirds by 2050.

They have warned that today’s children run a real risk of being the first generation to die at an earlier age than their parents.

Dr Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care for the BHF, said: ‘We have a generation of kids growing up who have a shockingly blase attitude towards exercise and being active.’ 

The charity surveyed 1,029 pupils and found that 78 per cent did not know how much daily exercise was recommended, while 30 per cent said that they ‘can’t be bothered’ to do any.

Adults are advised to get at least half an hour of exercise five or more times a week.

Victoria Taylor, the charity’s senior dietician, said it was important to get into good habits early in life.

‘Physical inactivity is one of the key risk factors for coronary heart disease,’ she said.

‘Being physically active as an adult can reduce your risk of having a heart attack by up to half.

‘If you are inactive as a child, you may be less likely to be active as an adult.

‘We are not talking about highlevel athletics but fun activities that make you a bit out of puff. You can break it up.

‘So you can start the day by walking to school, be active at playtime and then play outside when you get home, rather than sitting in front of the television or computer.’

To tackle the problem, the charity has launched an Ultimate Dodgeball challenge in schools as part of its Food4Thought campaign.

Athlete Sally Gunnell, who won an Olympic Gold medal in the 400m hurdles in 1992, is backing the challenge.

‘As a mother, I know how children can benefit from being active,’ she said.

‘It’s something that all children should enjoy as part of a healthy lifestyle and is also a great way to socialise with friends.

By Satwant Pandher Newsbeat reporter, BBC Radio 1

There are calls for a ban on the controversial weight loss drug Alli being sold online.

People with anorexia and bulimia say they’re getting around medical checks to buy Alli on the internet from chemists like Boots.

It was launched back in April and was the first diet pill available to buy in Britain without a doctor’s prescription.

It promises to help people lose weight faster as part of a healthy diet with exercise and works by stopping the body from absorbing fat.

To buy it at a chemist you need to talk to a pharmacist, who’ll work out your Body Mass Index (BMI.)

If it’s more than 28, it means you need to lose weight and you can buy Alli to help you.

Charity concerns

The Royal College of GPs says it’s a serious concern and BEAT, the UK’s leading eating disorder charity, says it knows people with anorexia and bulimia are getting hold of Alli.

They’re avoiding face-to-face contact with a pharmacist by shopping at high street chemists online and getting the pills delivered to their door.

Sally, not her real name, is suffering with anorexia. As soon as she saw Alli being launched she wanted to buy it.

She said: “Obviously I know that clinically I’m underweight but there’s a part of your brain that tells you you’re fat and you need to lose weight. You’ll do whatever you can.”

Weighing six stone (38kg), with a BMI of 16, she knew there was no way she would be able to convince a pharmacist she was overweight so she went online to investigate.

“I didn’t want to get it from anywhere unreputable, or some dodgy online company,” she said.

“I found out that Boots sold them. I thought they’re a reputable company, I’ll try and get it from there.”

Beating the checks

Newsbeat went on to the Boots website and tried if for ourselves. We calculated a weight and height that would give a BMI of over 28, answered a few more questions and sent the order through.

Boots say every order placed online is checked by a pharmacist and rejected if it doesn’t meet the right criteria.

It says it turns away between eight to 10% of orders of Alli and is doing all it can to stop the wrong people buying medicines online.

We got an email back saying a pharmacist had approved our order. A few days later a pack of Alli arrived.

Sally thinks having Alli so easily available encourages people to buy it: “I don’t know many women who aren’t conscious about their weight.

“I certainly think it happens a lot more than people realise because it’s so easy to get.”

Susan Ringwood is the chief executive of BEAT.

She said: “We were really concerned when people started to contact us saying they could get Alli online, because we simply didn’t know it was possible to do that.”

GlaxoSmithKline, who make Alli, worked with BEAT to draw up guidelines for pharmacists selling the pill over the counter.

Susan said: “We thought by having the pharmacist involved it was one of the ways companies could guarantee the safety of this drug.”

GlaxoSmithKline says more than 100 clinical tests on 30,000 people worldwide have proved Alli is safe.

It says it simply won’t have much effect on someone with an eating disorder because there is so little fat in their diet.

‘Addiction danger’

But critics say that’s not good enough.

Chairman of the Royal College of GPs Steve Field said having such easy access to Alli online could mean people waited too long before getting medical help.

They could become mentally addicited to the pills and it could make an eating disorder worse.

Dr Field said he would ideally like to see Alli only available by prescription.

He said at the least a ban on it being sold online would help towards stopping it getting into the wrong hands.

BBC News.co.uk

Children taking part in a study to measure how much exercise they do fooled researchers by attaching their pedometers to their pet dogs.

About 200 children in east London were given pedometers to automatically count how many steps they walked and ran.

Mile End Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine was surprised by the activity levels recorded in some obese children.

Professor Nicola Maffulli said: “Then we realised they were attaching the pedometers to their dogs’ collars.”

‘Extremely active’

The pilot study in Whitechapel required 11 and 12-year-olds to clip a pedometer to their waists, with researchers at the centre collecting the readings by satellite.

“But after a week we found there were some kids who were extremely active but still obese,” said Professor Maffulli.

It was “not unheard of” for participants in previous studies to manipulate the readings of pedometers, he added.

Once adjusted to take into account the help from pets, the study indicated that boys in the borough walk or run 12,620 steps a day, below the recommended level of 15,000 steps.

It also found that girls take 10,150 steps, falling short of the recommended 12,000 steps.

It indicated that more than a third of 11 and 12-year-olds in the borough of Tower Hamlets are overweight or obese - 11% higher than the national average.

Researchers plan to extend the study to include more children in the borough.

BBCnews.co.uk

Nearly two thirds of UK adults risk their health through insufficient exercise, a survey shows.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy polled 2,084 adults, and found 63% admitted to not taking enough exercise.

Lack of exercise and unhealthy living has been linked to greater risk of life threatening illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.

However, 20% of those questioned said they exercised only once a month or less.

The recommended amount of exercise is one hour every day for children and 30 minutes at least five times a week for adults.

Active people are up to 50% less likely to be at risk of major chronic disease such as coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

But the survey found only 13% of people knew how much exercise they should be taking - with 56% under-estimating the level.

Over a third (39%) of people said they got out of breath fairly quickly from walking up a flight of stairs. The figure was higher among women (43%) than men (34%).

The most common reason people gave for not taking regular exercise was that they were too busy with work (35%). One in four blamed being tired or unwell.

However, exercise is known to boost performance at work, and counter lethargy, stress and depression.

Over half (53%) of people questioned said that they would take more regular exercise if they could fit it into their existing daily routine, and 39% said it would help if exercise were free.

Low priority

Bridget Hurley, chartered physiotherapist and spokesperson for the society, said: “Most people know physical activity is good for their health but when it comes to doing it, exercise simply isn’t a priority.

“Regular physical activity is as important as eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and people need to understand that you can’t keep putting it off.”

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is launching a new campaign to highlight the importance of exercise in maintaining good health and preventing illness.

It is calling on the NHS and local authorities to widen access to exercise opportunities and invest in popular activities for people of all ages, such as swimming, aerobics classes, gym sessions and cycling.

Ms Hurley said: “Exercise doesn’t need to be expensive, boring or time consuming.

“Just going outside at lunchtime for a half-hour walk every day will greatly increase your fitness levels.

“One of the best ways to counteract feeling ill and tired - one of the main reasons people don’t exercise - is by becoming more active, which actually gives you more energy.”

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said: “The biggest barriers to people being more active are time and expense.

“We need to make activity a normal part of our daily lives.

“And that means making it easier for everyone to be more active, by encouraging walking to work, active lunch breaks, free access to swimming pools and gyms.

“We could achieve so much for health in such a simple way.”

By Jo Macfarlane, MailOnline

Investigation: There are fears Alli is linked to liver damage

A slimming pill that triggered massive sales when it was launched earlier this year is being investigated amid fears it is linked to liver damage.

Alli, which blocks the absorption of fat in the gut, is the first diet pill of its kind to be available without prescription.

Its main ingredient is the drug orlistat. But now the US medicine watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is investigating a series of alerts from patients who developed problems while taking orlistat.

The UK drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has also received 31 reports of side effects linked to orlistat since Alli was launched in April.

But it was not able to say if those were from patients taking Alli or the stronger pill Xenical – which also contains orlistat but is available only on prescription.

Since Xenical became available in 2001, 24 patients taking it have died, one of liver failure and the others from heart attacks, gall bladder inflammation, multi-organ failure and lung clots. There were also five cases of sudden death where the cause was unclear. In total, the MHRA has received 1,252 reports from patients of potential side effects from Xenical, including heart problems, gastrointestinal issues and skin complaints. Nearly 100 were connected with liver problems.

On the day Alli was launched in the UK, £1million worth of pills were sold. But it has already provoked controversy. Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) claims it can boost weight loss by up to 50 per cent, helping dieters lose an extra 1lb for every 2lb shed.

Tempting: The resulting weightloss of Alli made sales soar

The treatment is supposed to be taken by people with a body mass index of more than 28, but there have been claims that pharmacists are flouting the rules and giving it to women who are much slimmer. The FDA can ban the sale of drugs and can also order changes to labelling or prescription guidance.

While any of its rulings are not automatically adopted in the UK, the European Medicines Agency, which licenses orlistat in the UK, works closely with the FDA.

A spokesman for the FDA said: ‘We have received rare reports of hepatitis and other liver-related laboratory abnormalities in people taking orlistat. The FDA is closely monitoring this issue to determine the need for any regulatory action.’

GSK said the safety of consumers was of ‘utmost importance’ to the company and that it supplied all information about adverse effects to Government drugs bodies.

A spokeswoman said: ‘Alli has been used by millions of consumers in the US. The safety and efficacy profile of orlistat is well documented and has been established through data from more than 100 clinical studies involving more than 30,000 patients worldwide.’

A spokeswoman for Roche, which manufactures Xenical, said the company took patient safety issues very seriously. She added: ‘There is no evidence of a link between Xenical and liver toxicity.’

Telegraph.co.uk

Nearly half of men are worried about baring their bellies on the beach, research has shown.

And one in three has considered avoiding a beach holiday altogether because of how they look in their swimming trunks.

Seven in 10 men surveyed were worried about baring their body, with 47 per cent most concerned about revealing their belly.

Three-quarters of those questioned thought British men get just as nervous as women do when it comes to slipping on the swimwear.

The men deployed a number of tactics to cover up in the heat, with nearly a quarter (24 per cent) wearing shorts or a T-shirt even in the sea, 40 per cent dieting and around a third (36 per cent) stripping off only when in the water.

More than three-quarters of men (76 per cent) were jealous of toned, athletic men they spotted on the beach.

A third said they were most worried about how they look to the opposite sex, compared with just 13 per cent who worried about what other men would think.

Catherine Ambrozewicz, head of Tescodiets.com which carried out the research, said: “Every summer we hear plenty about women dreading having to wear a swimsuit but men clearly have many of the same issues.”

More than 2,000 men were questioned for the survey.

The body parts men are most worried about showing on the beach are:

Belly - 47 per cent

Chest - 22 per cent

Back - 15 per cent

Arms - 11 per cent

Legs - 13 per cent

Everything - 9 per cent

MailOnline,  Andrew Levy

Men and women are to be paid to lose weight in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

They will be given a £1 shopping voucher for every pound they shed in the pilot project for some 100 volunteers.

Participants must be significantly overweight, and ‘before and after’ photo sessions will highlight the benefits of their efforts.

If the pilot due to begin in September is successful, the idea could be rolled out across the UK.

However, experts warned that financial incentives could promote dangerous binge-dieting to gain the rewards but would not encourage long-term changes in eating habits and exercise.

The Pound-for-Pound project is an initiative between the NHS South West Essex primary care trust and Basildon Council.

Figures show that 25.8 per cent of the adult population in the area is obese, compared with a national average of 23.6 per cent.

Volunteers must have a body mass index (BMI) - a measure based on height and weight - that shows they are significantly overweight.

They will be given advice on how to lose weight and told to return after three months for a weigh-in.

There is no set BMI limit to qualify and volunteers can set their own targets.

The Asda vouchers they earn can only be spent on healthy goods such as fruit and vegetables.

Organisers of the project, which is being funded by Basildon Council, claim it provides better value for money than previous schemes including £75-a-month gym memberships which are often not used.

Care worker Sarah Stanton, 36, who has signed up for the scheme, is 5ft 8in and weighs 14st 7lb, giving her a BMI of 30.9.

A BMI of 30 or more is classed as obese. She hopes to lose 2st 7lb.

‘I have gone on loads of diets before and they have not worked,’ said the mother of four from Vange, near Basildon. ‘I just want to get fit and healthy.’

Figures show that 25.8 per cent of the population in the South West Essex area - where the trial is taking place - are obese

The pilot scheme follows a recommendation in a government report last year to tackle the obesity timebomb using a series of measures such as compulsory cooking lessons in schools, but also financial incentives.

No firm ideas were put forward at the time, but Department of Health sources suggested vouchers to spend on healthy food.

But Jo Grayley, of Weight Watchers, said yesterday: ‘Without support over a three-month period, there will be weeks where motivation levels will drop.

‘You would also get people who might do silly things to lose a lot of weight for the reward. It can be dangerous to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.

Pounds for Pounds: The NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent website promoting its weight-loss trial

‘Losing weight should be its own incentive. I don’t think attaching a monetary award to it is necessarily a good idea.’

A Basildon Council spokesman said: ‘We have initially set aside £1,000 for the scheme. We don’t want to encourage people to excessive weight loss. It’s a small push in the right direction.’

Obesity causes a host of health problems including diabetes, heart disease, infertility and some cancers.

It is already costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds each year.