Fit To Drop 6: Can you ever shake off even one month as a couch potato?

It's NOT me, honest, but one of those amazing "How the hell do they live with that?" belt overhangs. Be warned, the road to ruin starts more easily than you think. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Three weeks have passed since I started the challenge to inject some balance into my eternal tussle of food vs exercise vs weight. (Mind you, so much for increasing awareness, I just finished a chicken-and-sweetcorn sandwich at my desk without realising I’d started on the second half of it!)

Just eat less and exercise more, you shout. But it’s not that simple; eating too little may affect how well you can exercise, or even slow the rate you burn calories anyway.

I’ve studiously logged all my meals and, according to the Ki Fit software, I’m running consistently on a weight-loss pattern. But if that’s not sufficient motivation on its own, today we see the article that says one month of ’slobbing’ produces weight gain effects that last for years.

An admittedly comparatively small Swedish study published in the online journal Nutrition & Metabolism came up with the scary findings.

Volunteers were asked to gorge on fast food and be less active for four weeks. Initially they returned to their previous weight when resuming their normal eating and exercise habits, but then things started going wrong. After 30 months they were still three kilos heavier than before the couch potato life.

“Even short-term behavioural changes may have prolonged effects on health,” said study leader Asa Enersson, from Linkoping University in Sweden.

* Long-term increase of fat mass after a four week intervention with fast food based hyper-alimentation and limitation of physical activity.

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• BrianLuxury

  Thing is, this article contains the word two incidences of the word ‘may’ at important moments, and is therefore meaningless.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Martin-King/100000846914914 Martin King

  Just carry on with the burgers then. But I may not – and that may is definite!

• BrianLuxury

  No burger-man me, son – though I will be having a pint later!

• davdos

  No