Doug Skrecky wrote:
> How effective are traditional dietary and exercise interventions for
> weight loss?
>
> Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 1999 31(8): 1129-1134
> Wayne C. Miller
>
> Abstract Health care professionals have used restrictive dieting and
> exercise intervention strategies in an effort to combat the rising
> prevalence of obesity in affluent countries. In spite of these efforts,
> the prevalence of obesity continues to rise. This apparent
> ineffectiveness of diet and exercise programing to reduce obesity has
> caused many health care providers, obesity researchers, and lay persons
> to challenge the further use of diet and exercise for the sole purpose of
> reducing body weight in the obese. The purposes of this paper were to
> examine the history and effectiveness of diet and exercise in obesity
> therapy and to determine the best future approach for health promotion in
> the obese population. A brief survey of the most popular dieting
> techniques used over the past 40 yr shows that most techniques cycle in
> and out of popularity and that many of these techniques may be hazardous
> to health. Data from the scientific community indicate that a 15-wk diet
> or diet plus exercise program produces a weight loss of about 11 kg (24
> lb) with a 60-80% maintenance after 1 yr. Although long-term follow-up
> data are meager, the data that do exist suggest almost complete relapse
> after 3-5 yr. The paucity of data provided by the weight-loss industry
> has been inadequate or inconclusive. Those who challenge the use of diet
> and exercise solely for weight control purposes base their position on
> the absence of weight-loss effectiveness data and on the presence of
> harmful effects of restrictive dieting. Any intervention strategy for the
> obese should be specific to chronic disease risk and symptomatologies and
> not limited to medically ambiguous variables like body weight or body
> composition.
>
> Additional note by poster:
>
> The main weight loss motivation for females at least is to increase
> sexual attractiveness. Unfortunately, while average BMI in our
> exercise-challenged automobile-centered society has been increasing, the
> ideal preferred BMI has been steadily decreasing till it has now reached
> the extraordinary point were any further decrease would halt menstruation
> and eliminate fertility. The female BMI, that is most preferred by male
> undergraduates is now only 20, so it is little wonder that females are
> starving themselves to compete. (The Lancet August 1998 352: 548)
> To calculate BMI mulitply body weight in pounds by 703 and divide by
> height in inches, then divide by height in inches again. For example if
> the height is 5 feet 5 inches (or 65 inches), and weight is 120 lbs then
> BMI = (703 X 120)/(65 X 65) = 20.
> The only suggestion this poster has to the "younger" generation is
> this: "Come on guys, get real, a generation ago Marilyn Monroe and Jane
> Mansfield were considered hot stuff. Just look at pictures of beautiful
> women dating from the middle ages, and you will see this obsession with
> thin women is a recent aberration. Historially there exists no preference
> for women with a less than curvaceous figure. Think again: do you really
> prefer thin or voluptuous women?"