Fitness and Weight Loss

A common assumption is that exercise is a key positive contributor to any weight-loss effort.

Well, it turns out this assumption hasn’t been consistently demonstrated by research studies.

In fact, many studies don’t show exercise making ANY contribution. In other words, people who exercise as part of a weight-loss program don’t lose any more weight than people who don’t exercise.

That’s probably why the US Dietary Guidelines emphasize the value of exercise in maintaining weight loss (there is more research evidence this is true) but doesn’t say much about exercise contributing to weight loss.

So, why is the belief that exercise is important to losing weight so prevalent?I think it’s because studies are done demonstrating a minimal positive impact but the authors conclude something much different.

A recent study from Australia is an example of this. The authors did an extensive literature search and found 43 studies of good enough quality to be included in their review. When they dug into the data, here is what they found:

* Excercise by itself compared with no treatment resulted in only small weight losses across the studies.
* Exercise combined with diet resulted in a 2.4 pound greater weight loss than diet alone.
* More intense exercise combined with diet resulted in a 3.7 pound greater weight loss than diet alone.

I don’t know about you but these results don’t seem very signficant to me. If someone lost 20 pounds using ONLY dietary measures, this data suggests they would have lost 22.4 to 23.7 pounds if they would have added moderate to intense exercise to their regimen.

However, given these results, the authors conclude the following:

“The results of this review support the use of exercise as a weight loss intervention, particularly when combined with dietary change.”

Do you see the problem? The impact of exercise on weight loss was minimal in this study but the conclusion suggests it was signficant.

Exercise is great for your health (in fact, this study concluded that “exercise is associated with improved cardiovascular disease risk factors even if no weight is lost”) but the evidence suggests it contributes very little to weight loss.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

If you’ve reached this page and are not familiar with me, I encourage you to review the About Allen page to gain some understanding of where I’m coming from. If you do, you’ll learn that I’m on a personal mission to discredit the mainstream and fad beliefs about weight loss that have so-obviously failed us (and which are totally unsupported by the evidence) – and to convince the world there is a completely different approach to losing weight that actually works due to its precise alignment with the true nature of human physiology. To learn more about this mission, please visit Truths Publishing.

This blog is one component of my efforts where I review recent media reports related to weight loss and try to clarify the confusing, contradictory and inaccurate information that’s so prevalent on this topic. My goal if for you to understand the fundamental and unchanging truths about weight management so you can stop feeling guilty and start losing weight.
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For years physicians, nutritionists, public health officials, and weight-loss gurus have been arguing over the “fit or fat” controversy — is it better to be above an average weight and fit, or at a normal weight and unfit?

The truth is no one really knows which is better for the general population. But, even it was known, the conclusion would not apply to everyone. There is just too much diversity in the human population for the results to apply universally.

But that doesn’t keep people from arguing about it.

Now a new study published in the September 2006 issue of the journal of Critical Care adds fuel to the fire by analyzing data on 15,000 subjects collected since 1987.

Here’s what the researchers found.

Diabetes increased the risk of illness and early death — but being overweight or obese, without diabetes, added no additional risk of these outcomes.

Being overweight did increase the risk of diabetes and this risk increased with size (although most overweight people are not diabetic). But, the added weight in the absence of diabetes didn’t seem to cause any health problems.

What? How is this possible? Isn’t being overweight the number one killer in the United States?

Well, some people think so. But this study seems to suggest otherwise.

As did a study from 1997 published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas. They analyzed data on over 25,000 men and discovered that those who were unfit and lean had a death rate nearly three times higher than that of men who were overweight but moderately fit.

But, again, this data and all the other data on both sides of the “fit or fat” controversy are from analysis of large populations. The reality is that the results — no matter what the conclusions when the controversy is ultimately resolved (which will likely never happen) — may not apply to a specific individual. Therefore, we each need to decide for ourselves what it means to be healthy and fit.

Is your blood pressure too high? Do you have elevated cholesterol levels? Do you have diabetes? Are you more sedentary than most people? Do you eat a poor diet with little food variety? These are much better questions to ask yourself to evaluate your health than just looking at your weight.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of The “Never Struggle With Your Weight Ever Again” Weight Loss Course