Exercise more important than diet to maintain weight loss: Study
Washington (US), May 2: A recent study from the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Centre (AHWC) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus has found that physical activity helps maintain significant weight loss more effectively than diet.
Danielle Ostendorf, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center says, "This study addresses the difficult question of why so many people struggle to keep weight off over a long period. By providing evidence that a group of successful weight-loss maintainers engages in high levels of physical activity to prevent weight regain -- rather than chronically restricting their energy intake -- is a step forward to clarifying the relationship between exercise and weight-loss maintenance."
The findings show that effective weight-loss maintainers rely on physical activity to maintain energy balance (rather than continuous dietary restriction) to avoid weight regain. Individuals who maintain a reduced body weight of 30 pounds or more for more than a year are considered successful weight-loss maintainers in the study.
"Our findings suggest that this group of successful weight-loss maintainers are consuming a similar number of calories per day as individuals with overweight and obesity but appear to avoid weight regain by compensating for this with high levels of physical activity," Victoria A. Catenacci, MD, a weight management physician and researcher at CU Anschutz Medical Campus, added.
The study compared successful weight-loss maintainers to two other groups: controls with normal body weight (BMI similar to the current BMI of the weight-loss maintainers) and controls with overweight/obesity (whose current BMI was similar to the maintainers' pre-weight-loss BMI). The weight-loss maintainers weighed around 150 pounds, which was similar to the normal weight controls, whereas the overweight and obese controls weighed around 213 pounds.
The researchers also assessed each person's resting metabolic rate in order to determine how much of the overall daily energy expenditure comes from resting vs physical activity. Prior research used self-reported measures or activity monitors to measure physical activity, which cannot provide the same accuracy.
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- ANI
