It's not very easy to keep slim!

London, Feb 18: A light exercise of ten minutes, a slow jog coupled with friendly chats in the neighbourhood park or little ''Shakira movements'' were all you needed to stay slim? New research contradicts this popular theory that gentle exercise was the key to weight loss, saying most successful slimmers chalk up a marathon a week.

The statistics reveal that people who exercised 60 to 90 minutes a day shed weight and kept it off for at least six years. Experts have showed concern on the obesity academic, which has become too serious to be treated as a ''lifestyle choice'' issue. ''Just as the threat of climate change has begun to be taken seriously when it may be almost too late, the threat of an obesity-related health disaster around the world needs urgent action because, like climate change, its effects are exceptionally difficult to reverse,'' the Daily Mail quoted International Obesity Task Force chairman Philip James as saying.

Calling on world leaders to agree a pact on fighting obesity, Dr James said major changes were needed in food production, advertising and town planning.

Healthy food should be made cheaper, the advertising of junk food to children clearly regulated and towns built not around roads and cars but around walking and public transport, he said.

UNI