Study: Exercise is more critical than diet to maintain weight loss
Jruzer
Posts: 3,501 Member
This appears to be an interesting study, comparing individuals maintaining weight loss with two sets of controls: overweight individuals and normal weight individuals who had not been overweight. The key finding is that successful maintainers tend to be more physically active, on average, than either overweight or never-overweight people.
For what it's worth, this is in agreement with my own personal experience. I'm willing to be it's true for many others of us on these forums.
More from Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190329130227.htm
Link to the study in the journal Obesity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22373
For what it's worth, this is in agreement with my own personal experience. I'm willing to be it's true for many others of us on these forums.
More from Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190329130227.htm
"This study addresses the difficult question of why so many people struggle to keep weight off over a long period. By providing evidence that a group of successful weight-loss maintainers engages in high levels of physical activity to prevent weight regain -- rather than chronically restricting their energy intake -- is a step forward to clarifying the relationship between exercise and weight-loss maintenance," said Danielle Ostendorf, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.
The findings reveal that successful weight-loss maintainers rely on physical activity to remain in energy balance (rather than chronic restriction of dietary intake) to avoid weight regain. In the study, successful weight-loss maintainers are individuals who maintain a reduced body weight of 30 pounds or more for over a year.
Key findings include:
- The total calories burned (and consumed) each day by weight-loss maintainers was significantly higher (300 kcal/day) compared with that in individuals with normal body weight controls but was not significantly different from that in the individuals with overweight/obesity.
- Notably, of the total calories burned, the amount burned in physical activity by weight-loss maintainers was significantly higher (180 kcal/day) compared with that in both individuals of normal body weight and individuals with overweight/obesity. Despite the higher energy cost of moving a larger body mass incurred by individuals with overweight/obesity, weight-loss maintainers were burning more energy in physical activity, suggesting they were moving more.
- This is supported by the fact that the weight-loss maintainer group also demonstrated significantly higher levels of steps per day (12,000 steps per day) compared to participants at a normal body weight (9,000 steps per day) and participants with overweight/obesity (6,500 steps per day).
"Our findings suggest that this group of successful weight-loss maintainers are consuming a similar number of calories per day as individuals with overweight and obesity but appear to avoid weight regain by compensating for this with high levels of physical activity," said Victoria A. Catenacci, MD, a weight management physician and researcher at CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
Link to the study in the journal Obesity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22373
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My personal experience is that using more calories just makes it significantly easier to navigate life and maintain one's weight. It gives me room for higher calorie dinners on the weekends or to grab a bagel when someone brings them into work. Without physical activity, it would be virtually impossible to do those things without going really low calorie the other days of the week and that would be hard for me to sustain.
It doesn't surprise me at all that there are others who have -- consciously or not -- made the same decision.17 -
My personal experience is that is bs. You have to watch what you eat too. Exercise alone doesn't do it.19
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Just my n=1 but I've successfully maintained for 6 years now with very minimal exercise factored in. I average 300-400 calories a week, walking (winter months it's less). That's the equivalent of a couple weekend beers or a couple servings of cookies etc. In the scheme of things that's nothing.
I manage my weight 99.5% by the amount of calories I eat.10 -
That was definitely true for me when I was younger 40's. I was running, cycling and doing weights in the gym. I never really considered my food intake, I just ate when hungry. Now in my 60's I take a lot more notice of my food intake, I find it far too easy to put weight on.2
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There exists a major potential underlying self selection bias in all these studies, including this one, and perhaps even in what we do as overweight people in order to lose and maintain weight.
How many of us have heard of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) database? Quite a few more I bet on MFP as compared to the general population, right?
Their studies, including the fact that successful maintainers on their database walk daily, is *one* of the reasons I started walking more in 2014 (another reason is that I was looking for an easy to implement--low cost of entry, easy to implement at the drop of a hat--exercise activity)
So is the fact that I walk a lot and maintain my weight and eat, on average, probably only a little bit less than I did 125lbs ago a ringing endorsement of exercise as a weight maintenance strategy, or is it the dual awareness of having to control calories in and that I feel good when I am more active?
When family issues recently resulted in me being less active AND eating more due to stress in spite of being aware that I was doing so, with a gain of about 3lbs of trending weight, was this the result of just not being as active and that I couldn't rely on exercise to maintain my weight? Or the result of the stress eating?
I think the stress eating had more to do with it, because I would argue that, self perceptually, I have no trouble reducing my eating to match my activity up until I reduce my activity to being within the realm of sedentary (sub 5K steps). At that point I do start having some trouble matching my eating to my TDEE.
I also don't think that it is a plus that the weight control registry excludes non US residents and that it is a recall once a year study.
In today's world with logs such as MFP and many others and with the availability of all day tracking devices I would think that there is scope (but no money) to get even more widespread data.
I would also love to know whether the weight control registry tracks the "failures". i.e. the strategies that people who fail to remain eligible were using <-- I have to look up whether and how they handle that, I don't know whether they do study it.
My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?6 -
There exists a major potential underlying self selection bias in all these studies, including this one, and perhaps even in what we do as overweight people in order to lose and maintain weight.
How many of us have heard of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) database? Quite a few more I bet on MFP as compared to the general population, right?
Their studies, including the fact that successful maintainers on their database walk daily, is *one* of the reasons I started walking more in 2014 (another reason is that I was looking for an easy to implement--low cost of entry, easy to implement at the drop of a hat--exercise activity)
So is the fact that I walk a lot and maintain my weight and eat, on average, probably only a little bit less than I did 125lbs ago a ringing endorsement of exercise as a weight maintenance strategy, or is it the dual awareness of having to control calories in and that I feel good when I am more active?
When family issues recently resulted in me being less active AND eating more due to stress in spite of being aware that I was doing so, with a gain of about 3lbs of trending weight, was this the result of just not being as active and that I couldn't rely on exercise to maintain my weight? Or the result of the stress eating?
I think the stress eating had more to do with it, because I would argue that, self perceptually, I have no trouble reducing my eating to match my activity up until I reduce my activity to being within the realm of sedentary (sub 5K steps). At that point I do start having some trouble matching my eating to my TDEE.
I also don't think that it is a plus that the weight control registry excludes non US residents and that it is a recall once a year study.
In today's world with logs such as MFP and many others and with the availability of all day tracking devices I would think that there is scope (but no money) to get even more widespread data.
I would also love to know whether the weight control registry tracks the "failures". i.e. the strategies that people who fail to remain eligible were using <-- I have to look up whether and how they handle that, I don't know whether they do study it.
My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?
I'm a participant of the NWCR and I never include exercise in my surveys, it's such a minimal factor in my weight management plan. I'm trying to be more intentional about walking now, (since the beginning of this year), but when I factor out how much I'm actually burning it's pretty sad
I do it for my health, definitely not for the calorie burn lol. 2 -
I've read the summary a couple of times and I'm not sure I entirely understand the experiment and the conclusions drawn by the article. It seems to focus more or less on 3 groups of maintainers: those who are overweight, those who are normal weight and have not been overweight before, and those who were overweight but have lost weight to be normal weight. It is stating that the last group is most likely to be the most active of the three, but I don't think that does anything to establish a causal relationship. It seems like all three groups were maintaining their weight with their calorie in/calorie out.
This study's result certainly don't appear to be claiming: "Study: Exercise is more critical than diet to maintain weight loss". It appears to be claiming that weight loss maintainers in general seem to be pretty active people. At most, the conclusion we could draw from that is: "exercise assists in weight loss maintenance", which I think we all generally agree on. But there's nothing to here to suggest that it is more important than diet.8 -
I've been maintaining for going on 7 years now. I don't do much in the way of purposeful exercise, but I have put in the effort to increase my NEAT significantly. On a sedentary day I only burn about 1300 to 1400 calories. I would find next to impossible to eat that little on a daily basis. I need at least 2000 to feel satisfied regardless of my activity, so I make sure to move enough that I can eat that much.4
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My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?
In reading the study, the answer is that the authors discriminated between TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and PAEE (Physical Activity Energy Expenditure). The 300 refers to TDEE, while the 180 refers to PAEE. In looking at the data, it appears that the weight-loss group also has about 120 kcal/d higher REE than the never-overweight group.6 -
I've read the summary a couple of times and I'm not sure I entirely understand the experiment and the conclusions drawn by the article. It seems to focus more or less on 3 groups of maintainers: those who are overweight, those who are normal weight and have not been overweight before, and those who were overweight but have lost weight to be normal weight. It is stating that the last group is most likely to be the most active of the three, but I don't think that does anything to establish a causal relationship. It seems like all three groups were maintaining their weight with their calorie in/calorie out.
This study's result certainly don't appear to be claiming: "Study: Exercise is more critical than diet to maintain weight loss". It appears to be claiming that weight loss maintainers in general seem to be pretty active people. At most, the conclusion we could draw from that is: "exercise assists in weight loss maintenance", which I think we all generally agree on. But there's nothing to here to suggest that it is more important than diet.
@MikePTY, agreed it is kind of a click-baity title. I used the Science Daily article title as the topic of my post. The journal article is titled "Physical Activity Energy Expenditure and Total Daily Energy Expenditure in Successful Weight Loss Maintainers", which is more precise, to be sure. But where's the pizzaz in that?
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I personally found it hard to lose weight when physically active. I ended up getting so hungry that I ate more. Perhaps it was lack of discipline. This time I’m not working out at all and losing much easier. But I have a fairly active natural lifestyle. As my husband says, you can’t outwork a bad diet. But I think for some this study is certainly true!5
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I've read the summary a couple of times and I'm not sure I entirely understand the experiment and the conclusions drawn by the article. It seems to focus more or less on 3 groups of maintainers: those who are overweight, those who are normal weight and have not been overweight before, and those who were overweight but have lost weight to be normal weight. It is stating that the last group is most likely to be the most active of the three, but I don't think that does anything to establish a causal relationship. It seems like all three groups were maintaining their weight with their calorie in/calorie out.
This study's result certainly don't appear to be claiming: "Study: Exercise is more critical than diet to maintain weight loss". It appears to be claiming that weight loss maintainers in general seem to be pretty active people. At most, the conclusion we could draw from that is: "exercise assists in weight loss maintenance", which I think we all generally agree on. But there's nothing to here to suggest that it is more important than diet.
@MikePTY, agreed it is kind of a click-baity title. I used the Science Daily article title as the topic of my post. The journal article is titled "Physical Activity Energy Expenditure and Total Daily Energy Expenditure in Successful Weight Loss Maintainers", which is more precise, to be sure. But where's the pizzaz in that?
Clickbait headlines are one of the things that stop people being realistic about weight loss and maintenance.
Also unlike MFP it's lumping together general activity and exercise.
"Being physically active is an important and useful part of weight control" is perhaps dull as a headline but attainable for the vast majority.
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"Being physically active is an important and useful part of weight control" is perhaps dull as a headline but attainable for the vast majority.
... and a true statement for a lot of people (that being physically active is an important and useful part of weight CONTROL)
Exercise is more critical than diet to maintain weight loss: not so sure that this is a true statement and that the summary conclusion supports that; but we already established that it was click-bait, didn't we...1 -
Two things to keep in mind:
1. Although the title says "exercise", what the study measured, on a sample of ~75 individuals in three groups, was TDEE. They used doubly-labeled water to measure TDEE, which is a gold standard technique that doesn't rely on self-reporting. TDEE can include intentional exercise such as running, biking, weight lifting, etc., but it also includes unintentional energy expenditure such as fidgeting, and walking around the house.
2. This study was written about weight maintenance, not weight loss.6 -
A figure from the study, showing PAEE, PAL (TDEE/REE), and steps for the three groups, with error bars. WLM=Weight Loss Management, NC=Normal Weight Control, OC=Overweight Control.
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I find exercise to be key because I am far more able to make good food choices when I am active. (Not sure exactly why, but exercise seems to act as a bit of an appetite suppressant for me .... maybe increased endorphins??)3
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One more thing. Here's the reddit thread where I first saw this study discussed. There's some good discussion there as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/b81r6r/study_exercise_is_more_critical_than_diet_to/0 -
I'm not sure how to look at this, in personal terms. I was very active for a decade, while obese, before losing weight (by changing intake), and am now similarly active in year 3 of maintenance.
I think it's unusual (though not unheard of, obviously) for obese people to be very active. It's not terribly unusual for people who want to lose weight to add exercise in the weight-loss mix. It's probably (?) not that unusual for formerly obese people to discover how good it feels to be fitter, during that whole process, and stick with some level of exercise; and to find exercise simply more doable at a lighter body weight, besides.
So, through that lens, what to conclude from the data is a little murky to me.My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?
In reading the study, the answer is that the authors discriminated between TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and PAEE (Physical Activity Energy Expenditure). The 300 refers to TDEE, while the 180 refers to PAEE. In looking at the data, it appears that the weight-loss group also has about 120 kcal/d higher REE than the never-overweight group.
Does that fly in the face of the "Biggest Loser Study" adaptive thermogenesis (so-called "metabolic damage") hand-wringing?2 -
I'm one of those who uses exercise to maintain my weight and have done so for years. As a 62 year old female who is mostly sedentary, my maintenance is only 1400 calories. As someone who loves to eat, that isn't at all sustainable for me. By doing things like daily walks, running, biking, etc. I can eat a much more varied diet without gaining weight. Yes, I watch what I eat, but I get a lot more freedom to enjoy indulgences because I am active for at least part of my day.3
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Does that fly in the face of the "Biggest Loser Study" adaptive thermogenesis (so-called "metabolic damage") hand-wringing?
I think it does. They do mention The Biggest Loser study in this article.
Another confounding factor: this study examines individuals who are successfully maintaining their weight. What we don't know is how these individuals have changed over time. In other words, this is a snapshot, not a longitudinal study of individuals over a long time. Perhaps these successful maintainers were people who tended to be more naturally active when they were heavier, and thus found success with weight loss because of this natural tendency.
For me personally, I tend to be a fidgeter. I know from my own data that my TDEE is a bit higher than calculators predict.
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Does that fly in the face of the "Biggest Loser Study" adaptive thermogenesis (so-called "metabolic damage") hand-wringing?
In reading the study, the answer is that the authors discriminated between TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and PAEE (Physical Activity Energy Expenditure). The 300 refers to TDEE, while the 180 refers to PAEE. In looking at the data, it appears that the weight-loss group also has about 120 kcal/d higher REE than the never-overweight group.My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?
And wasn't a previous Registry study one of those that found a small down-regulation beyond that explained by the loss of lean mass--if I recall correctly?0 -
Rubbish.
Total couch potato here.
Lost 60 pounds, hit my goal weight 3 years ago, been maintaining ever since.2 -
There exists a major potential underlying self selection bias in all these studies, including this one, and perhaps even in what we do as overweight people in order to lose and maintain weight.
How many of us have heard of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) database? Quite a few more I bet on MFP as compared to the general population, right?
Their studies, including the fact that successful maintainers on their database walk daily, is *one* of the reasons I started walking more in 2014 (another reason is that I was looking for an easy to implement--low cost of entry, easy to implement at the drop of a hat--exercise activity)
So is the fact that I walk a lot and maintain my weight and eat, on average, probably only a little bit less than I did 125lbs ago a ringing endorsement of exercise as a weight maintenance strategy, or is it the dual awareness of having to control calories in and that I feel good when I am more active?
When family issues recently resulted in me being less active AND eating more due to stress in spite of being aware that I was doing so, with a gain of about 3lbs of trending weight, was this the result of just not being as active and that I couldn't rely on exercise to maintain my weight? Or the result of the stress eating?
I think the stress eating had more to do with it, because I would argue that, self perceptually, I have no trouble reducing my eating to match my activity up until I reduce my activity to being within the realm of sedentary (sub 5K steps). At that point I do start having some trouble matching my eating to my TDEE.
I also don't think that it is a plus that the weight control registry excludes non US residents and that it is a recall once a year study.
In today's world with logs such as MFP and many others and with the availability of all day tracking devices I would think that there is scope (but no money) to get even more widespread data.
I would also love to know whether the weight control registry tracks the "failures". i.e. the strategies that people who fail to remain eligible were using <-- I have to look up whether and how they handle that, I don't know whether they do study it.
My quick read of the above link sees that weight control people have a TDEE of about 300 above the never obese and spend about 180 more on exercise.... where's the other 120?
I honestly have never heard of the National Weight Control Registry. It's completely and utterly off my radar and I would have gotten nowhere with the acronym alone. What is useful is that it did remind me to google another acronym, though that one (EMCA) I guessed correctly based on my experience and the context of where it was used (a research group meeting this afternoon).0 -
I will say that despite my skepticism of the conclusions drawn by the study and article, I can say personally, exercise has been a huge part of my weight loss. I eat at about what would be maintenence for me if I was sedentary, but because I exercise heavily consistently losing around a pound a week. Down 27 pounds so far. So I don't think exercise is necessarily doing more than diet for me but it is pulling its weight along with diet.
And weirdly, exercising makes me less hungry than not exercising, so it helps me control my diet more than with no exercise.
However I know there are plenty of others who have achieved success with little to no exercise, so everyone is different in that regards. But I can say for me it has been a big part of it.3 -
My take from this study is that the correlation between physical activity and weight maintenance most likely does not mean " physical activity means successful weight maintenance". But more likely that the people who are more motivated to lead a healthier lifestyle and maintain their weight are more likely to be more active.
It's the same conclusion you could get from looking at the correlation between the ratio people who are fit to the people who are obese that participate in marathons. On one end, you could say marathons cause people to lose weight because very few people who run in marathons are obese. But the much more likely reality is that obese people dont participate in marathons.
I'm going to say the people that published this study had a pretty clear confirmation bias. They were looking for a specific outcome and that's the one they saw.6 -
It's a combo if exercise and dietary adherence. Diet drives weight loss and so can exercise. To quote dr. Hill, "exercise can help attenuate the bodies natural reaction to regain." In my ideas, it provides a buffer for us. Resistance training can offer some potentially beneficial boons as well. Recent study my Rosenbaum's lab showed decreased skeletal muscle efficiency after weight training in the post reduced body weight subjects. Just my ramble.1
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I think there's something cultural at play here.
I am one of those people who has never been overweight, exercises 5-6 times a week, and calorie count to maintain/counter gains. Aside from pregnancies, my weight has been within a 12-lb. range my entire adult life.
I agree 100% that what you eat determines what you weigh. I never skip more than 1-2 days of exercise, never, and yet I quite easily will gain weight if I eat too much. This is because I gained 10 lbs in one year when I stopped tracking calories (hence, I went back to it!) and also stopped weighing myself weekly. I got on a scale for my annual check up and went WHOAH and immediately went back to calorie counting and regular weigh-ins at home.
THAT BEING SAID--when you work out regularly, unless you do it within the privacy of your home, you become part of a "culture" that values health. Whether you're going to the gym and seeing other people work out, running outside or even doing it all online, there is a social component, even if you don't befriend the other people. And if you DO you become friends with people you exercise with, they're likely not going to want to eat and drink to excess when you go out, so even if you are grabbing tacos and margaritas with them, it's likely not going to be a crazy quantity. It's 100% influenced me to have mainly fitness-focused friends.7 -
I wonder whether this may be partly about exercise providing more of a calorie buffer; in my own experience, 1700 calories without exercise and 2000 calories with exercise may be energetically equivalent, but I find the latter feels rather less restrictive.
Also, if I'm out doing exercise, I'm not at home feeling slightly bored and starting to suffer the surprisingly painful pangs of boredom-hunger...5 -
I genuinely enjoy these threads because I get to see how others view and filter information. In my personal experience exercise has had little to do with my ability to lose weight but it is a vital part of maintenance.
I find a direct relationship between regular exercise and weight maintenance personally. I also think that for me it is less about the calorie buffer than it is about stress relief. When I exercise I feel better mentally and physically so I tend to eat less. I read the study through that lens - and it has been true for me.5 -
My take from this study is that the correlation between physical activity and weight maintenance most likely does not mean " physical activity means successful weight maintenance". But more likely that the people who are more motivated to lead a healthier lifestyle and maintain their weight are more likely to be more active.
This is kind of what I assume as well. Perhaps people who start and stick to "active" hobbies or to a workout schedule are incorporating good habits all over the place. You could extrapolate that out to all sorts of behaviors or habits that both make you more likely to be active AND make you more likely to eat correctly.
I'd add that just because some people who successfully maintain weight loss don't exercise doesn't mean the idea is flawed. It says exercise is more critical, not that it's absolutely necessary in all cases.
Perhaps the more fair conclusion is "activity level is generally a better indicator of weight loss maintenance than diet"?4
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