Project Number: 5450-51000-049-10
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2011
End Date: Aug 31, 2014

Objective:
To evaluate the efficacy and sustainability of diet and physical activity interventions to maintain healthy body weight and reduce risks factors for obesity-related chronic disease in a community setting.

Approach:
The Healthy Body Weight Research Unit will conduct high-impact, community-based research on the roles of diet/physical activity in maintaining healthy body weight. To implement this vision, the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center will collaborate with the Grand Forks Parks District (GFPD, a unit of the North Dakota State government) in conducting human studies designed to support the maintenance of healthy body weight, reduce unhealthy weight gain, and reduce risk of obesity-related conditions. This will involve the use of GFPD facilities, including a community wellness center equipped with a wide variety of exercise equipment (treadmills, step machines, stationary cycles, rowing machines, free weights), indoor pools, indoor/outdoor walking/jogging trails, demonstration kitchen and meeting rooms. These will be used recruit volunteers to studies; conduct diet/physical activity interventions; collect specimens (blood, urine and/or stool samples), and perform a variety of evaluations (anthropometry, body composition, physiological responses to exercise) through study participants. With the results of these studies, the Healthy Body Weight Research Unit will determine the specific features of diet/physical activity practices that contributed to successful healthy body weight management as part of the evidence base for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans process.