Health
Benefits from a little exercise
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 2, 2004
Moderate amounts of exercise, such as walking 12 miles per week, may help prevent weight gain and can promote weight loss in nondieting individuals, according to an article in the Jan. 12 Archives of Internal Medicine.
Fifty-five percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the article. From 1991 to 1998, the prevalence of obesity increased by almost 50%.
Researchers from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., conducted a randomized, controlled trial in which 182 sedentary overweight men and women age 40 to 65 were assigned to either high amount/vigorous intensity exercise equivalent to jogging about 20 miles per week; low amount/vigorous intensity exercise equivalent to jogging 12 miles per week; and low amount/moderate exercise equivalent to walking 12 miles per week. A fourth group did not exercise.
The researchers found that there was a clear relationship between the amount of physical activity and the amount of weight lost, with the most weight loss accompanying the most vigorous exercise. But all subjects who exercised decreased their abdominal, waist and hip circumference measurements significantly.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/02/hlbf0202.htm.
