A Worksite Program for Overweight Middle-Aged Men Achieves Lesser Weight Loss With Exercise Than With Dietary Change
Section snippets
Methods
Sixty-six overweight but otherwise healthy men were recruited from a national business corporation and fully informed of the protocol of the 12-month prospective worksite study. After completion of a satisfactory cardiovascular fitness test, each subject was assigned randomly to a program of weight loss through diet, weight loss through exercise, or weight maintenance. Fifty-eight of the subjects completed 12 months of the study (18 in the diet group, 21 in the exercise group, 19 in the control
Results
No significant differences in personal and anthropometric characteristics were noted between groups at baseline (Table 1). There were no differences between groups in total dietary energy intake nor in percentage of energy from carbohydrate, protein, and fat at baseline. At 12 months, the diet group was significantly different from baseline and from the exercise and control groups in intake of total energy and energy from fat, which fell to 26.4% (Table 2).
The mean activity levels were similar
Discussion
The study was undertaken in a workplace situation with free-living subjects who consumed low-fat diets ad libitum or participated in unsupervised exercise interventions appropriate for promotion of weight control (28), (29). Distinctive features of the study included its randomized, controlled design, its high retention of subjects, and its use of DEXA.
The conservation of lean tissue in subjects after an exercise-induced weight-loss program is consistent with previous studies. Exercisers in the
Applications
A low-fat diet consumed ad libitum without change in exercise habits can achieve significant weight loss, but the composition of the loss consists of a high proportion of lean tissue. Alternatively, moderate, self-directed, unsupervised aerobic exercise without dietary change achieves a greater proportion of fat loss within a smaller absolute weight loss. Increased exercise alone encourages greater fat loss, whereas diet without exercise results in greater lean tissue loss and overall weight
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