From: Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Fri Sep 17 1999 - 17:57:52 MDT
How effective are traditional dietary and exercise interventions for
weight loss?
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 1999 31(8): 1129-1134
Wayne C. Miller
Abstract Health care professionals have used restrictive dieting and
exercise intervention strategies in an effort to combat the rising
prevalence of obesity in affluent countries. In spite of these efforts,
the prevalence of obesity continues to rise. This apparent
ineffectiveness of diet and exercise programing to reduce obesity has
caused many health care providers, obesity researchers, and lay persons
to challenge the further use of diet and exercise for the sole purpose of
reducing body weight in the obese. The purposes of this paper were to
examine the history and effectiveness of diet and exercise in obesity
therapy and to determine the best future approach for health promotion in
the obese population. A brief survey of the most popular dieting
techniques used over the past 40 yr shows that most techniques cycle in
and out of popularity and that many of these techniques may be hazardous
to health. Data from the scientific community indicate that a 15-wk diet
or diet plus exercise program produces a weight loss of about 11 kg (24
lb) with a 60-80% maintenance after 1 yr. Although long-term follow-up
data are meager, the data that do exist suggest almost complete relapse
after 3-5 yr. The paucity of data provided by the weight-loss industry
has been inadequate or inconclusive. Those who challenge the use of diet
and exercise solely for weight control purposes base their position on
the absence of weight-loss effectiveness data and on the presence of
harmful effects of restrictive dieting. Any intervention strategy for the
obese should be specific to chronic disease risk and symptomatologies and
not limited to medically ambiguous variables like body weight or body
composition.
Additional note by poster:
The main weight loss motivation for females at least is to increase
sexual attractiveness. Unfortunately, while average BMI in our
exercise-challenged automobile-centered society has been increasing, the
ideal preferred BMI has been steadily decreasing till it has now reached
the extraordinary point were any further decrease would halt menstruation
and eliminate fertility. The female BMI, that is most preferred by male
undergraduates is now only 20, so it is little wonder that females are
starving themselves to compete. (The Lancet August 1998 352: 548)
To calculate BMI mulitply body weight in pounds by 703 and divide by
height in inches, then divide by height in inches again. For example if
the height is 5 feet 5 inches (or 65 inches), and weight is 120 lbs then
BMI = (703 X 120)/(65 X 65) = 20.
The only suggestion this poster has to the "younger" generation is
this: "Come on guys, get real, a generation ago Marilyn Monroe and Jane
Mansfield were considered hot stuff. Just look at pictures of beautiful
women dating from the middle ages, and you will see this obsession with
thin women is a recent aberration. Historially there exists no preference
for women with a less than curvaceous figure. Think again: do you really
prefer thin or voluptuous women?"
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