DENVER, Sep 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Exercise helps prevent weight regain
after dieting by reducing appetite and burning fat before burning carbohydrates,
U.S. researchers have learned.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Denver also found that exercise
prevents the increase in fat cells that occurs during weight regain. This
finding challenges the conventional wisdom that the number of fat cells is set
and cannot be altered by dietary or lifestyle changes.
Paul S. MacLean and colleagues had obesity-prone rats eat as much as they wanted
of a high-fat diet for 16 weeks and remained sedentary. Then for two weeks, the
animals ate a low-fat and low-calorie diet, losing about 14 percent of their
body weight. The rats maintained the weight loss by dieting for eight more
weeks. Half the rats exercised regularly on a treadmill during the test, while
the other half remained sedentary.
In the final eight weeks -- the relapse phase of the study -- the rats stopped
dieting and ate as much low-fat food as they wanted. Some of the rodents
exercised and some were sedentary during the period.
Compared with the sedentary rats, the exercisers regained less weight during the
relapse period, burned more fat early in the day and more carbohydrates later in
the day, accumulated fewer fat cells, accumulated less abdominal fat and reduced
the drive to overeat.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory,
Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
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