Recent Study says 30 minutes daily exercise not enough to maintain weight loss.

Therefore, there is a need for more effective interventions." Current recommendations prescribe 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week, for a total of 150 minutes per week. However, a growing consensus suggests that more exercise may be needed to enhance long-term weight loss.

To calculate the amount of exercise needed, John M. Jakicic, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss intervention between 1999 and 2003. All the women were told to eat between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day. They were then assigned to one of four groups based on physical activity amount (burning 1,000 calories vs. 2,000 calories per week) and intensity (moderate vs. vigorous). Group meetings focusing on strategies for modifying eating and exercise habits, as well telephone calls with the intervention team, also were conducted over the two-year period.

After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 percent to 10 percent of their initial body weight. However, most were not able to sustain this weight loss. After two years the women's weight was an average of 5 percent lower than their initial weight, with no difference between groups.

The 24.6 percent of individuals who did maintain a loss of 10 percent or more over two years reported performing more physical activity (an average of 1,835 calories per week, or 275 minutes per week over the baseline level of activity) than those who lost less weight. They also completed more telephone calls with the intervention team, engaged in more eating behaviors recommended for weight control and had a lower intake of dietary fat.

"This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," the authors write. "Research is needed to improve long-term compliance with this targeted level of physical activity. Moreover, continued contact with the intervention staff and the ability to sustain recommended eating behaviors also may be important contributing factors to maintaining a significant weight loss that exceeds 10 percent of initial body weight, which suggests that physical activity does not function independently of these other behaviors."

 

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There are a few things about this study that are "missing" for me. What kinds of jobs do these women have? What is their average physical activity NOT including their exercise? Do they really need MORE exercise to maintain, or did they slip back in some regard to their previous eating habits?

The bottom line in weight gain, or loss (half full or half empty?!) is that you need to burn more calories than you take in. You can effect your metabolism to hang on to those calories and may need to exercise more, and yet for someone else matabolism may differ and they don't need to exercise as much in order to maintain.

This study (and so many studies that I've read on weight loss) always try and put people into groups as if they are all the same, and they really are not. I haven't had a McD meal or a fast food meal of any kind more than 2 or 3 times a year for many years now, and yet.. I have a LOT to lose. My neighbor has terrible eating habits and she drinks like a fish, and wears a size 2, and her muscles are all very well defined. She is 50 years old and doesn't go to the gym or workout in ANY way.

Everyone is different. Let us STOP spending so much money on why people aren't maintaining, or why ethel weighs 300 pounds. Let's get rid of the garbage people are eating, ban fast food and soda commercials to late night, focus more on helping people exercise and make healthy whole food choices. If everyone focussed on weight in the same way that the focus has been on cigarettes, we would be so much further ahead!

Tags: exercise, fat loss, metabolism, news