Exercise and How Critical it is to Success
The article below is an excerpt from one published by the National Weight Control Registry.
Exercise crucial to weight loss, experts say
February 3, 2001
Diet bars, fake sugars and portion-control apparatus overflowed from the Colorado Convention Center in Denver one day last October, as calls to end an overweight epidemic in America reverberated through the halls.
Experts from across the country discussed trendy diets, weight-loss aids and skyrocketing obesity rates at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference. But it was a leading local nutrition authority who said he had an answer:
Exercise.
No, it’s not groundbreaking, said James Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Nor is it an answer for everyone, he said. Weight problems are complex, continually stumping experts as they watch an estimated 55 percent of Americans cross the overweight line. But after six years of monitoring his National Weight Loss Registry, Hill said it’s clear that a dedication to exercise - along with the mandatory calorie reduction - could slim down a ballooning America.
Obesity rates in American adults jumped 40 percent from 1980 to 1990, according to an American College of Nutrition report. Childhood obesity also is on the rise.
Alarmed by the statistics and the corresponding increase in related disease rates, most notably Type 2 diabetes, the nearly 5,000 dietitians and nutrition experts who gathered in Denver for the conference made the issue a primary focus.
The national registry includes information on people who have maintained weight losses of 30 pounds or more for at least a year. Hill acknowledges that results are biased, as weight loss is self-reported and participants are volunteers solicited mainly through the media.
"These people may be metabolically different from people who fail to lose weight," he said. But more than 90 percent of the more than 3,000 surveyed had tried to lose before and failed, often repeatedly, he said. Many reported being overweight as children.
Among all those weight-loss winners, only 10 percent did it through diet alone, Hill said. And those diets ran the gamut. "Some counted calories. Some counted fat grams. Some used liquid diets. We were struck by the lack of similarity," he said.
What was common was exercise - and a lot of it - he said. "Most far exceeded the physical activity recommended by the surgeon general. Most did about an hour of physical activity every day," he said.
The surgeon general recommends at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week for health benefits.
"I believe, based on our research and some other research that has come out, that our recommendations for physical activity to maintain weight loss are too low," Hill said.
Daily walking was the activity of choice, but 72 percent interspersed other forms of exercise. Many people, particularly women, are using weight lifting to aid in weight loss, Hill said.
To maintain weight loss, most people avoided fast food and weighed themselves often, Hill said. "We do see, over and over, the importance of self-monitoring," he said.
Sometimes people need something more than the "golden" advice of fewer calories and more exercise, said Dr. Louis Aronne, medical director of a weight-control program at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Sometimes, these, combined with group discussions and support groups provide the added impetus to success.
February 3, 2001
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