If you want to keep the weight off for good, here’s the deal with diet vs exercise

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(Juna Xu/ Body and Soul) — Weight loss is 80 per cent diet and 20 per cent exercise, right? Well, that’s where we’re wrong. According to a world first study published in the journal Obesity, abs aren’t made in the kitchen, and in actual fact, physical activity actually does more to maintain substantial weight loss than diet.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus revealed that successful weight-loss maintainers – those who are able to maintain a reduced body weight of 30 pounds (13.6kg) or more for over a pear – rely on physical activity to remain in energy balance to avoid weight gain, compared to restriction of dietary intake.

“This study addresses the difficult question of why so many people struggle to keep weight off over a long period”, said Danielle Ostendorf, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. “By providing evidence that a group of successful weight-loss maintainers engages in high levels of physical activity to prevent weight regain—rather than chronically restricting their energy intake—is a step forward to clarifying the relationship between exercise and weight-loss maintenance.” (…)

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