Obesity, Energy Balance and Its Regulation

This review is based on several studies that have advanced our understanding of overweight and obesity from the point of view of energy balance and its regulation. There is no doubt that physical activity plays a key role in the prevention and therapy of obesity and it is, therefore, an indispensable component of healthy life style. However, a full consensus on an “optimal” physical activity does not exist at present. This is attributable to individual variations in dispositions, mostly subject to heredity, that modulate changes in the energy balance. To this end, it is necessary to understand these individual differences in order to prescribe an effective programme of physical activity and to instill positive changes in the life style of an individual.