University of Missouri Researchers believe they have found a promising solution to maintaining weight loss and improving overall health over the long-term. The researchers found that people who perform resistance training while regaining weight can help maintain strides in reducing their risks for chronic disease.
Resistance Training Defined
Resistance training is a form of strength training used to develop the strength and size of skeletal muscles. Properly performed, resistance training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being. Research shows that regular resistance training can strengthen and tone muscles, increase bone mass and reduce the risk to several chronic diseases. Resistance training should not be confused with weightlifting, bodybuilding or power lifting, which are competitive sports involving different types of strength training with non-elastic forces such as gravity (weight training or plyometrics) rather an immovable resistance (isometrics, usually the body's own muscles or a structural feature such as a doorframe). Resistance training can be performed using various types of exercise equipment or with resistance bands or various types of exercise machines.
Resistance Training Long-Term Weight Loss Study
"Long-term weight loss maintenance is uncommon without regular exercise," said Shana Warner, a doctoral student in the MU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology. "It is very important to address other things that can be done to maintain health as opposed to focusing solely on body weight. Our research indicates that following a consistent exercise program can help maintain certain aspects of metabolic health, even in those who experience weight regain."The long-term weight loss maintenance study consisted of two phases, meant to simulate real-life weight loss and weight regain. In the first phase, overweight and obese participants lost 4 to 6 percent of their initial body weight by following an eight to 12-week regimen of diet and aerobic exercise. In the second phase, participants regained 50 percent of the weight they had lost. During the regain phase, participants performed 45 minutes of supervised resistance training three times each week.
The researchers found that weight training during weight regain has a positive effect on health. Participants maintained improvements acquired through weight loss in cardiorespiratory fitness, body fat percentage, systolic blood pressure and other factors. In addition, participants significantly increased strength and lean body mass. These improvements have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases One interesting note, participants performed 45 minutes of supervised resistance training three times each week did not maintain reductions in visceral abdominal fat: the fat deposited around internal organs which in some studies have been shown to have a negative impact on health.
The study, "The Effects of Resistance Training on Metabolic Health with Weight Regain," was published this year in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. Researchers from the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology (part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences, the School of Medicine and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources) completed the study in conjunction with MU scientists in the Department of Internal Medicine, the Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, and the Harry S. Truman VA Memorial Hospital.
This study furthers research completed earlier this year, in which MU researchers found that participation in aerobic exercise while regaining weight counters many of the risk factors associated with chronic diseases. These studies are some of the first to consider the effects of exercise on people's health who regain weight they recently lost.
Source: University of Missouri-Columbia (2010, September 22). Putting on the pounds after weight loss? Hit the gym to maintain health gains.
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