Even the most critically obese adults significant clinical benefits from a lifestyle intervention which combined dietary restriction with either six or twelve months of physical exercise as per a year long random study.

Participants who started the exercise program along with a diet at the beginning of the study had lost considerable more weight at six months than the amount lost by people who followed the diet only.

According to Bret H. Goodpaster, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues the difference was significant.

However, at twelve months

At 12 months, when all the participants had been exercising the amount of weight loss was similar in both the groups at 12.2 kg in the initial exercise group and 9.9 kg in the delayed exercise group as peer the report of investigators online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Despite the prevalence of severe obesity in US adults evidence-based treatment guidelines are largely lacking for interventions other than bariatric surgery.

The degree of weight loss observed in this particular study was similar to that observed in previous studies of lesser obese people.