Losing weight is often cited as a way to improve health, but many programs of weight loss can help fend off disease, since people tend to gain weight back, say Australian researchers.
In a report in the International Journal of obesity, they note that the focus of such programs may need to change if they really will have a lasting effect.
To test the potential impact of different diets, researchers ran two computer simulations: one included a diet low in fat, the other a diet rich in whole grains and vegetables more 180 minutes of exercise per week.
According to the models, people have lost an average of 8 to 12 pounds in diets and kept the weight off for an average of 6 months. But the pounds slowly penetrated again and after less than 6 years, dieters are back where they started — denying any improvement in weight loss health.
In addition, the researchers estimate that only about 3% of the population of Australia would join weight loss programs.
"Interventions that attempt to change the behavior of people, but do nothing about the environment in which these people live, they are likely to have effects modest and temporary at best," said study author, Lennert Veerman studying population health at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
"Aren't the solution to the obesity epidemic — more and different interventions need to be taken," he said in an email to Reuters Health.
Together with ongoing advice to help people maintain weight long-term Moussafir suggests a "tax on junk food and better nutrition label. These seem to have a positive effect on health in a parallel study, published in November in the same newspaper.
In the USA, 73 percent of adults are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those extra pounds increase the risks of a multitude of diseases, including diabetes, heart attack, stroke, hypertension and some cancers. And according to the Surgeon General, they accumulate an annual bill of $ 117 billion in the United States, counting healthcare expenditures and lost productivity.
"We believe that weight loss programs that we have now are really useful for individuals," said Hollie Raynor, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. "But the challenge seems to be, how can we help individuals maintain this weight loss over time"?
Financially speaking, the Australian study shows a dieter who also exercises would save an average of $ 1088, and someone in the diet of low fat would save about $ 1040 in health care costs.
However, Moussafir said, "the fact that not everyone (that of) or overweight, or can participate reduces their overall impact on the charges related to the excess burden of disease in the population."
Source: International Journal of obesity, online in January 2011.
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educate people on how to live a healthy lifestyle is the key to help you lose and maintain weight.
Keeping the weight off takes discipline and responsibility.
Regular exercise must be part of your life routine. regular exercise daily with good eating habits will help you lose weight and keep it
