diet, exercise ineffective for long term weight loss

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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