If you like keeping up with research on nutrition and fitness, you’ll appreciate ScienceDaily. I subscribe via my RSS feed so I don’t miss anything posted to SD’s Health & Medicine section.
Here’s a blurb for an article published today:
ScienceDaily (2008-07-02)–The nationally known commercial weight loss program, Weight Watchers, was compared to gym membership programs to find out which method wins in the game of good health. Researchers examined the real-life experiences of participants to determine which program helps people lose pounds, reduce body fat and gain health benefits.
OK, I’m in. So I read the article . . .
And paragraphs two and three are enough to make my blood run cold:
Participants who attended Weight Watchers for 12 weeks lost an average of 5 percent of their body weight, or about nine pounds. However, Steve Ball, assistant professor of exercise physiology in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, found that a large percentage of the lost weight was lean tissue and not fat.
“Participants’ body fat percentage did not improve at all because they lost a much higher percentage than expected of lean tissue,” [emphasis added] said Ball, MU Extension state fitness specialist. “It is advantageous to keep lean tissue because it is correlated with higher metabolism. Losing lean tissue often slows metabolism. What your body is made of is more important than what you weigh.”
You tell ‘em, Steve Ball.
Our quest is not to lose weight but fat. People who lose muscle during the course of a diet may weigh less–but they’re actually becoming fatter.
The article goes on to describe two more significant findings:
- those who began working out in a gym shed intra-abdominal fat (the dangerous lard that surrounds internal organs) but didn’t lose much scale weight, and
- many of those who began a gym program ended up dropping out.
This second finding is especially unsurprising. The percentage of people who stick to a fitness program is notoriously low. (More about this later.)
My recommendations:
- When reducing calories, go for a modest deficit–15 to 20 percent of total intake. You’re much more likely to preserve muscle mass.
- Work out with weights three times a week, and eat plenty of protein (25 to 30 percent of caloric intake). The combination will reshape your body, burn calories, and preserve your lean tissue.
If you only reduce calories, you’re likely to lose muscle. If you only work out, you’ll become fitter and better-looking but not lose a significant amount of fat. You need both for the results you want.
