Exercise for Health – Not Weight Loss

Posted on November 6, 2009

In a recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine it was found that even though exercise alone doesn’t always result in weight loss, there are plenty of other reasons to exercise.

58 sedentary overweight/obese men and women participated in a 12 week supervised aerobic exercise program and here’s what the researchers concluded:

“Despite attaining lower than predicted weight reduction, these individuals experienced significant increases in aerobic capacity, decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference and resting heart rate. In addition, these individuals experienced an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood.”

“These data demonstrate that significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss. Less successful reduction in body weight does not undermine the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise.”

– via abstract here.

Bottom line: Exercise is still good for you even if you think it won’t help you lose weight. There’s a lot more to health than just your weight.