Obesity study finds cardio + weight training best for teens.

[steve_d]

I am waiting for the study about how lack of exercise and over eating leads to weight gain. ;o)

P

Yeah, funny part is that probably needs to happen before the government will do anything about education! The study was designed in such a way to compare aerobic vs resistance, and combination vs. either alone. As you know, there is quite a lot to it, and by seeing how recommendations pan out in the real world, you don't really see what 'truth' exists. For example, with aerobic exercise - many people simply eat more to accommodate. Their diets were not controlled in the sense that they were forced to eat x. So in the real world, it would be important to know if for example resistance is better than aerobic or perhaps if aerobic was not significantly better than doing nothing! (which for many people, is the case because of the inability to limit calorie intake). But of course, weight loss, bodyfat, waist circumference are only a few of the outcomes. Perhaps bodyfat does not decline with aerobic vs not, but visceral fat does, etc. Or perhaps resistance exercise seems to be awesome, regardless if its in combination with aerobic or not. In the end, these outcomes and the ones not yet looked at will lead to some interesting results / and new things to study.

Hard to believe some of the common sense things people have to study to figure out. They should be teaching our children more about health, nutrition and the benefits of physical activity in school then some of the crap material they have to learn.

Exactly. Nutrition has been taught in school, and PE has been part of program, but we all remember what we were taught - food guide pyramid, etc. Once people are finally willing to accept some of this as nonsense, eventually who knows - they may start getting it right. It hasn't even been long since media focused on anti-sugar vs. anti-fat. Just think of how sexy the word 'low fat' used to be, and now it's low sugar (or gluten, etc). Even pepsi have started with lower sugar to appeal to that market. I would rather see kids working out in a gym then being told they should need to wait until they are 18 or whatever. Studies like this will help people realize it. The study was even talked about on the Today show so there has been some immediate impact. Of course, outside the media, the actual study results do talk about concepts not really studied, or even known as common sense. One thing to note is there is a big difference between efficacy, and effectiveness.