Are diet and exercise the same for weight loss? Study claims they are!

Study suggests diet and exercise are the same for weight loss

Gangs, I have a feeling many of you have seen this report, or one like it, floating around the net right now regarding a study that (supposedly) found that diet or exercise equally reduced weight. Although the media often does a poor job of accurately reporting nutrition research, they do a truly terrible job here. It’s not entirely their fault though, as the researchers themselves missed the mark in the results of their own study, which is not uncommon by the way.

I have the full document and it’s not as bad as that press release, but it’s close. It’s an example of a study that’s very well done, but the underlying assumptions are wrong, so they’re drawing all the wrong conclusions from the results they got, and weirdly, commenting on results they didn’t actually prove.

Shock of all shocks, they put people through low-intensity aerobics (and let people choose their own intensity levels, no less!) Great, so they confirmed what we all know: low-protein diets and aerobics they are terrible as a method of losing fat.

It in no way proves that exercise and diet are equally effective for fat loss! As usual, the form of exercise is ignored, as are macronutrient ratios, which studies repeatedly find to have effects on LBM preservation, as well as other effects (1). Therefore, low protein diets and no resistance training is a terrible, albeit typical, method of losing fat and protecting LBM.

(1) Higher protein intake preserves lean mass and satiety with weight loss in preobese and obese women
Obesity 15:421-429 (2007)

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