Professor Angelo Tremblay obtained his PhD in Physiology in Laval University, Quebec City, and is currently a professor in the Department of Kinesiology in this university. His investigations are mostly oriented towards the study of factors influencing energy balance in humans with the intent to improve obesity management. Recently, his research has been focused on the study of non-traditional determinants of obesity such as short sleep duration, low calcium/dairy intake, insufficient vitamin intake, suboptimal feeding behaviors, demanding cognitive effort and persistent organic pollutants. He is holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Energy Balance.
Clinical experience in the management of many health problems reveals that there are large individual variations in the response to interventions promoting healthy life habits. In some cases, these variations include a deterioration of the body status even if the intervention has supposedly the potential to improve the condition of everybody. In response to a well-controlled physical activity program, it was observed that a small proportion of participants displayed an adverse response in health-related variables such as systolic blood pressure and plasma insulin, triglycerides, and HDL-cholesterol. Our research related to the use of diet-based weight-reducing programs has confirmed this occurrence of adverse effects. In a first clinical trial, we observed that in a group of 75 overweight women subjected to weight loss, 11 participants gained body weight. These weight gainers exhibited less favorable changes in energy intake, susceptibility to hunger, adaptive thermogenesis as well as sleep duration and quality.