United Kingdom: A new study has found that a lower-calorie Mediterranean diet and minimal exercise for up to six days a week led to the loss of a significant amount of body fat by the end of a year. In addition to a loss of overall body fat, participants in the study lost visceral belly fat, which could lead to diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, shared that “this study demonstrates that a calorie-controlled Mediterranean diet plus exercise does not simply produce weight loss; it results in a redistribution of body composition from fat to muscle.”
“While the findings of the new study are no surprise, they extend the benefits of diet and exercise from mere weight loss to the mobilisation of harmful, visceral fat,” Mr. Katz, President and Founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, added.
“This study confirms that we can profoundly change our metabolic status,” leading nutrition researcher Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, remarked.
The research is part of an eight-year-long clinical trial in Spain, with 23 research centres testing how diet and exercise can reduce cardiovascular risk in men and women between the ages of 55 and 75. All of the 6,874 participants in the trial were overweight or obese and had metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, altered cholesterol, and excess fat around the waist.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, further examined one- and three-year results in a subpopulation of 1,521 people who underwent scans to determine levels of visceral abdominal fat.
During the study, half of the group was asked to follow a Mediterranean diet with a 30 percent reduction in calories and limit the intake of added sugar, biscuits, refined breads and cereals, butter, cream, processed meats, and sweetened drinks. In addition, the intervention group received help from trained dietitians three times a month during the first year, along with training on how to self-monitor and set goals. The same group was also asked to increase their aerobic exercise over time to 45 or more minutes a day.
“When you cut calories, you lose both lean and fat mass. When you add exercise, it helps to protect lean mass, especially if you add resistance training to build muscle. Generally, the ideal is to lose fat and retain muscle,” Mr. Katz further remarked.
MOST READ | COP28; EU to phase out CO2-emitting fossil fuels
