Physical Activity Can Successfully Maintain Weight Loss Than Diets, Study Finds!
Go get moving! It seems like the recent research also points out the fact that only exercise can help in effective weight loss. The time has come to throw away those fad diets you collected from TikTok. Get moving to lose that extra weight around your belly.
A group of researchers from the University of Colorado has found that exercise is more important than diet in maintaining weight loss. So what are you waiting for? Get up, set up your workout clothes and shoes, and hit the gym straight up!
Importance Of Physical Activity In Maintaining Weight!
A recent study by a group of researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Centre (AHWC) found that exercise is more important than diet to maintain weight loss. The findings of the study were published in the March issue of the journal Obesity.
It was subsequently selected as the Editor’s Choice article. According to Danielle Ostendorf, a research fellow at CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Centre, the study throws light into the question of why so many people find it difficult to lose weight even after following some strict diets.
As per this study, successful weight loss is the result of high levels of physical activity which also prevents rebound weight gain.
The researchers found that successful weight loss maintainers relied on high levels of physical activity to avoid weight gain. They didn’t rely on any kind of extreme diet for weight loss. All that weight loss maintenance was a pure result of physical activity. The research found that successful weight-loss maintainers are people who can maintain a reduced body weight of around 30 pounds aka 13.6kg for more than a year.
According to Victoria A. Catenacci, MD, a leading researcher and weight management expert from the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, the calorie intake of both the successful weight-loss maintainers and obese individuals was the same. But they avoid weight gain by indulging in high levels of physical activity.
The study classified three groups of people for the research. The successful weight loss maintainers were compared to the group of people with a normal BMI (Body Mass Index) which is similar to the weight loss maintainers. And they also compared to another group of people with overweight or obesity characteristics.
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This group had a BMI similar to the pre-weight loss BMI of the successful weight loss group. According to the study, the successful weight loss maintainers weighed 150 pounds similar to the normal weight control spectrum. While the overweight or obese category weighed around 213 pounds.
One of the characteristic features of this new study was that it can also be used to measure the total daily energy expenditure in the weight-reduced group. This makes use of the gold standard doubly labelled water method.
In this method, the researchers collected urine samples over one or two weeks from the people who are administered doubly labelled water. This can be effectively used to measure the total energy expenditure of the individual as well as the estimate of energy intake.
Prior studies in this aspect used questionnaires and diet records which had scientific limitations of their own. This method also helped the researchers to measure the resting metabolic rate of each individual. Through this, they could understand how much of the daily energy expenditure is from energy utilised using physical activity versus from the energy at rest mode.
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