(Press-News.org) Exercise and healthy eating reduce body fat and preserve muscle in adults better than diet alone, according to a study funded and conducted by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study was recently published online in Obesity and will be in a future print edition.
NIDDK senior investigator Kevin Hall, Ph.D., analyzed the individual effects of daily strenuous exercise and a restricted diet by examining data from 11 participants from the reality television program "The Biggest Loser." The program shows obese adults losing large amounts of weight over several months. Participants were initially isolated on a ranch followed by an extended period at home.
"By including the show's contestants as voluntary study participants, this research took advantage of a cost-efficient opportunity to study a small group of obese individuals already engaged in an intensive lifestyle intervention," said Hall, who has no financial ties and no other affiliation to the show.
Researchers measured body fat, total energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate — the energy burned during inactivity — three times: at the start of the program, at week 6, and at week 30, which was at least 17 weeks after participants returned home. Participation in the program led to an average weight loss of 128 pounds, with about 82 percent of that coming from body fat, and the rest from lean tissue like muscle. Preserving lean tissue, even during rapid and substantial weight loss, helps maintain strength and mobility and reduces risk of injury, among other benefits.
Hall used a mathematical computer model of human metabolism — currently intended for research conducted by scientists and health professionals — to calculate the diet and exercise changes underlying the observed body weight loss. Because the TV program was not designed to directly address how the exercise and diet interventions each contributed to the weight loss, the computer model simulated the results of diet alone and exercise alone to estimate their relative contributions.
At the competition's end, diet alone was calculated to be responsible for more weight loss than exercise, with 65 percent of the weight loss consisting of body fat and 35 percent consisting of lean mass like muscle. In contrast, the model calculated that exercise alone resulted in participants losing only fat, and no muscle. The simulation of exercise alone also estimated a small increase in lean mass despite overall weight loss.
The simulations also suggest that the participants could sustain their weight loss and avoid weight regain by adopting more moderate lifestyle changes — like 20 minutes of daily vigorous exercise and a 20 percent calorie restriction — than those demonstrated on the television program.
More than two-thirds of U.S. adults age 20 and older are overweight or obese, and more than one-third of adults are obese. Excess weight can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and certain cancers.
"This study reinforces the need for a healthy diet and exercise in our daily lives," said NIDDK Director Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers. "It also illustrates how the science of metabolism and mathematical modeling can be used to develop sound recommendations for sustainable weight loss — an important tool in the treatment of obesity — based on an individual's unique circumstances."
###
The NIDDK, a component of the NIH, conducts and supports research on diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, nutrition and obesity; and kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. Spanning the full spectrum of medicine and afflicting people of all ages and ethnic groups, these diseases encompass some of the most common, severe and disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about the NIDDK and its programs, see www.niddk.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health ®
END
URBANA – Adding the right prebiotic to the diets of pediatric patients with intestinal failure could replace intravenous feeding, says a new University of Illinois study.
"When we fed the carbohydrate fructooligosacharide (FOS) as a prebiotic, the gut grew and increased in function," said Kelly A. Tappenden, a U of I professor of nutrition and gastrointestinal physiology. "The study showed that using the correct pre- and probiotic in combination could enhance these results even more."
When FOS enters the intestines, bacteria convert it into butyrate, a short-chain fatty ...
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Oct. 15, 2012 – When patients suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) express high levels of the gene, MN1, an already aggressive leukemia is accelerated and shortens survival time. While that's a known fact, the mechanisms involved aren't well understood which is why a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researcher decided to take a closer look.
Timothy S. Pardee, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Wake Forest Baptist, said that previous studies of AML have shown that when patients express high levels of the MN1 ...
VIDEO:
Scientists at the University of Missouri have proven that a new form of prostate cancer treatment that uses radioactive gold nanoparticles, and was developed at MU, is safe to use...
Click here for more information.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Currently, large doses of chemotherapy are required when treating certain forms of cancer, resulting in toxic side effects. The chemicals enter the body and work to destroy or shrink the tumor, but also harm vital organs and drastically affect ...
The recent outbreak of meningitis in the US—and the subsequent deaths of 15 individuals—has renewed scrutiny on the contemporary practice of pharmacy compounding. The risks to patients, and associated liability risk to prescribing physicians, largely outweigh the benefits when the practice goes beyond the traditional, extemporaneous role, according to Sarah Sellers from q-Vigilance LLC and Wulf Utian from Case Western Reserve University in the US. Sellers and Utian's opinion piece appears online in the journal Drugs, published by Adis.
There is a place for traditional ...
Fat progenitor cells may contribute to cancer growth by fortifying the vessels that provide needed blood to tumors, according to preclinical research findings by investigators at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
The results were reported in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Studies of groups of people have demonstrated a link between obesity and certain cancers; however, the physiological causes have not been identified. The World Health Organization reports that in 2008 there were more than ...
"Communicating With Older Adults: An Evidence-Based Review of What Really Works," the latest report from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), provides 40 pages of recommended guidelines for health care providers interacting with the fastest growing age segment of America's population.
This publication is intended for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, biologists, psychologists, social workers, caregivers, economists, and health policy experts — anyone who seeks to have the best possible interactions with older patients. It was developed by GSA and supported by McNeil ...
New Rochelle, NY, October 15, 2012—In addition to the obvious benefit of eliminating the need for an injection, new vaccine delivery methods via the lungs offer particular advantages for protecting against infectious agents that enter the body through the respiratory track. A comprehensive review article that presents the current status, challenges, and opportunities of pulmonary vaccine delivery is published in Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free online on ...
New York, NY (October 15, 2012) — Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing and published in the October 2012 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.
Researchers found that of the hospitals surveyed, a little more than half (59 percent) routinely screened for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aurea, or MRSA. Other potentially deadly MDROs were screened for far less frequently: vancomycin-resistant ...
We've all been warned not to "judge a book by its cover," but inevitably we do it anyway. It's difficult to resist the temptation of assuming that a person's outward appearance reflects something meaningful about his or her inner personality.
Indeed, research shows that people tend to perceive attractive adults as more social, successful, and well-adjusted than less attractive adults, a phenomenon that's been termed the "what is beautiful is good" stereotype.
But could that really be true? Are physically attractive people really just as attractive on the inside as they ...
VIDEO:
Translation: "Referee statue pick up. " Above is one of the 80 animated video clips used to teach an artificial language to study participants. Cognitive scientists are just beginning to use...
Click here for more information.
Cognitive scientists have good news for linguistic purists terrified about the corruption of their mother tongue.
Using an artificial language in a carefully controlled laboratory experiment, a team from the University of Rochester and ...
