Reply to C Maffeis
Involverte ansatteEkelund U, Sardinha JB, Anderssen SA, Harro M, Franks PW, Brage S, Cooper AR,
Andersen LB, Riddoch CJ, Froberg K.
In press: Am J Clin Nutr
BeskrivelseThe main findings from our cross-sectional study are that total activity is not significantly associated with body fat, and that time devoted to moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) explains less than 1% of the variation in body fat in the children studied.
It is possible that time spent in sedentary and in light intensity PA is more important than the accumulated time spent in MVPA, or the total amount of PA, when preventing overweight and obesity in children.
However, in our large population-based cross-sectional study including almost 1300 children from four different countries in Europe (1), and our matched case-control study (3), we observed associations between MVPA and body fatness but not between time spent being sedentary and body fat.
Although one needs to be cautious when interfering causality from cross-sectional data, these findings support the view that MVPA and body fatness are related, whereas our objective measure of low intensities of PA and body fatness are not.