Obese Women Need To Exercise Longer To Maintain Weight Loss

The current public health guidelines suggest overweight and obese people to exercise daily for at least 30 minutes a day five days a week to lose weight. But, a new study says that in addition to cut calories obese women may need to exercise a bit more than previously recommended to keep their weight off.

According to the latest study aimed at changing the way doctors fight rising U.S. obesity rates, women who are overweight or obese need to reduce calories and exercise 275 minutes a week or at least 55 minutes a day five days a week to lose weight and keep the pounds off, which means 25 minutes more than the current recommendation of the government.

The study, published in the July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, concludes that obese people need more exercise to maintain weight loss.

To reach their findings, a team of U.S. researchers headed by John M. Jakicic, PhD, of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, enrolled 201 overweight and obese women in a weight loss programme between 1999 and 2003 and assigned them to one of four exercise groups, and all were told to eat 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day.

Of the four groups, the two groups were asked to burn the equivalent of 1,000 calories a week by either moderate exercise or vigorous exercise, while the other two groups were asked to burn 2,000 calories either by moderate exercise or by vigorous exercise.

After six months, Jakicic and colleagues noticed that women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their weight but most were not able to sustain this weight loss.

About 26.5 percent of women, who were assigned to exercise for about an extra hour each day, succeeded to maintain the weight loss at the end of the two-year follow-up period. The women in this group performed an average of 55 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week, or an average of 275 minutes a week (the equivalent of burning 1,835 calories), compared with the 30 minutes a day or 150 minutes a week recommended by the government.

These women were also more likely to stick to healthy diets recommended for weight control such as a lower intake of dietary fat. They also completed more telephone calls with the intervention team and attended free group meetings.

"This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," Jakicic said.

However, he recommended that people who want to shed their extra pounds and keep it off get at least 4-1/2 hours of exercise a week, but said more “Research is needed to improve long-term compliance with this targeted level of physical activity.”

According to American Obesity Association (AOA), obesity is a complex, multi-factorial chronic disease involving environmental (social and cultural), genetic, physiologic, metabolic, behavioral and psychological components. It is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.