"Self-Sustainable" Gym Clubs Tackling Obesity

Abstract

Dear Editor-in-Chief: As recently pointed out by Horowitz (1), exercise is a key component for the successful management of many obesity-related metabolic complications. Overweight has nowadays reached pandemic dimensions as a result of deep modifications in terms of food intake. In addition, the occupational and environmental everyday's physical activity levels have consistently dropped, following the advances of industrialized society technologies. As a consequence, obesity has to be faced by society, exactly as smoking was institutionally opposed in the last decades. Obesity treatment is often prevented by socioeconomic issues: most people who are morbidly obese come from lower classes, in terms of educational, professional, economic, and social status (4,5), and many of them have always been or have turned out to be unemployed. Moreover, their mood is often pathologically harmed (2). The above considerations explain why memberships to expensive fitness clubs, but also autonomous practice of physical activities, are hardly undertaken or, whenever they are, may become potentially harmful without supervision. Public institutions should support effective, safe, and supervised physical activities for obese persons, but how to afford the cost? A reasonable solution could be fostering "self-sustainable" city district gym clubs for curing obesity, where physical activities financially support themselves using, or even selling, "physical" energy. We recall that a man's moderate pedalling can develop a 100-kW power, and already during the Second World War, the walkie-talkies were recharged through a generator connected to a bicycle. More recently in Japan, electronic devices recharging batteries of MP3 players or mobile phones through human pedalling (http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/511) are already on the market. An even more original idea is using the energy produced by dancers trampling on the dance floor by transducing the pressure variations in electrical energy by means of piezoelectric transducers. Such a system has been implemented recently by a disco in Rotterdam, Holland, to cover lightening and amplification plant expenses (http://urbanity2.blogsome.com/2008/02/24/off-corso-rotterdam-sustainable-dance-clubbing/). Detailed provisions for the economical profit can be drafted, provided the efficiency of the equipments and the "power" produced by the athletes are known. In conclusion, the above project could bring many benefits: it could reduce, or even cancel, membership fees of gym clubs, often unaffordable for the obese, and would motivate them to useful, socializing, and healthy physical activity, with good results on obesity-related depression. On a more general ground, this would be a small step toward a more efficient and fair management of the planetary energy balance, reversing the current wasting of energy into unhealthy body fat deposits. Changing human fat into fuel might raise some ethical concerns, but they are counterbalanced by the virtuous action of stimulating the obese to increase their energy consumption, socializing, and promoting group therapy and behavioural programs (6). Psychology has shown how important the rewarding circuit and reinforcements are in human learning (3). The phase of human history in which a person's capacity of storing food was successful for Darwinian evolution is over. Human beings must now learn to restrict their food intake. The economic reinforcement has always been effective in conditioning human actions and could probably help in promoting weight loss through physical exercise. Filippo Boriani Department of Plastic Surgery Maria Alessandra Bocchiotti Department of Plastic Surgery Caterina Guiot Department of Neuroscience University of Turin, Turin, Italy