Why Exercise Alone Isn't Enough To Prevent Weight Gain

Exercise on its own — without also following a healthy diet — isn’t enough to help people lose or even just maintain their weight, a recent study suggests. The new results run counter to the idea that the obesity epidemic in the U.S. is caused by a lack of physical activity, said lead study author Lara Dugas, an assistant professor of public health sciences at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. When it comes to figuring out the causes of obesity, “what we really need to look at is what people are eating,” Dugas told Live Science. Previous research, for example, has linked a greater risk of obesity with the consumption of high-calorie food and sweetened beverages, she said. [How to Lose Weight in 2017 (and Keep It Off for Good)] In the new study, the researchers found that the amount of time people spent exercising per week didn’t seem to play a role in how well those people controlled their weight. In fact, some of the people who exercised more than others in the study actually gained weight over the two-year study period, while some of those who exercised less than others lost weight over the same period, according to the study, which was published in January in the journal PeerJ.  The findings suggest that “physical activity was not enough to prevent weight gain,” Dugas said. The new study examined more than 1,900 people in the U.S., Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica and the Seychelles (an island nation...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news