The University of Navarra needs obese people to carry out a study on diets. An interdisciplinary team of the department of Physiology and Nutrition, led by the Full Professor in Nutrition Alfredo Martinez, is looking for volunteers to carry out the research of a project that studies the interactions between per diem expenses, obesity and Genetics. "Or what is the same: it tries to discover why some people who eat a lot do not get fat, while others who eat less get fatter," explains Dr. Martinez.

The University of Navarra's project is part of an initiative financed by the European Union in which 12 clinical and genetic centers from eight European countries are participating. "The research, called NUGENOB (Nutrition, Genetics and Obesity), is being carried out on 750 obese people, of which 100 will be studied in Pamplona. The volunteers can be men or women between 20 and 50 years of age," reports the director of the Navarre phase of project.

The department of Physiology and Nutrition has already carried out the first phase of the study on 50 volunteers. According to Dr. Idoia Labayen, biologist, "the diets are individualized, because we want to optimize weight loss in each person depending on the energy spent by each obese person and their eating habits. We control the amount of food the volunteer eats, but he eats what he likes. So the volunteer can even adapt to the menus that his or her family eats."

One kilo per week

The volunteers have to comply with this per diem expenses for ten weeks, and according to those responsible for project, "in the first phase they have lost, on average, one kilo per week. They are seen once every seven days to help them with the monitoring of the per diem expenses. No drugs are given and no physical activity is compulsory". The interdisciplinary team that carries out this research is made up of doctors, nutritionists, biologists, pharmacists, nurses and technicians from laboratory.

The study, performed free of charge, also requires the presence of non-obese people. But how do you know if a person is obese or not? As explained by those responsible for project, to calculate obesity one must have a body mass index (BMI) equal to or greater than 30. A simple way to calculate this BMI consists of dividing the weight by the height and dividing the obtained result again by the height. In other words, if a person weighs 69.1 kilograms and is 1.48 meters tall, he/she should perform the following operations:
69,1 / 1,48= 46,69
46,69 / 1,48= 31,54
BMI= 31.54