As you make your way along your weight loss journey, you may find you have one main recurring fear: What if all the weight comes back? It's a nagging fear, one that can destroy your motivation. Before you begin to think you're destined for failure, take a look at the good news -- there is something you can do about your chances of re-gaining the weight.

Normally, metabolic changes that lead to weight gain occur when dieters take themselves off of their strict eating program. Recent research has shown that there is at least one way you can stop this from happening before it starts: get moving! The best part of this good news is that we're not talking an hour on the Stairmaster; the study shows that low-intensity exercise like walking or bicycling will help you retain your weight loss success.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that following a program of low-intensity exercise could prevent weight gain associated with the post-diet metabolic changes. The study's participants consisted of 40 obese men whose average age was 39. The men followed an energy restriction program for 10 weeks at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

The "diet only" group followed a protein-enriched low calorie liquid formula diet for 10 weeks. At the same time, the "diet-plus-exercise" group added a low-intensity exercise training program four times a week during the diet and for two weeks afterwards. The exercise sessions consisted of cycling, walking or water jogging at 40 percent of aerobic capacity.

The study participants who did not exercise lost about the same amount of fat mass as the group that exercised.However, just two weeks after returning to an energy-balanced diet at a reduced weight, the non-exercising group had a lower rate of fat metabolism, a change that could predispose them to weight gain.

The respiratory exchange rate (RER) -- a gauge of fat metabolism -- was determined before, and two weeks after, the diet by measuring carbon dioxide production and oxygen consumption while the men cycled on an ergo meter. In the diet-only group, RER was lower than it had been before the diet, whereas in the diet-and-exercise group, changes in RER did not differ significantly before and after the diet.

The administration of Propranolol (a drug that stimulates lipid metabolism) produced less of a response in the diet-only group two weeks after the diet than it had before the diet, indicating a decline in fat metabolism. In the diet-plus-exercise group, the response to Propranolol was similar both after the diet and before, indicating that the pre-diet fat oxidation rates had not changed.

The results of the study suggest that low-intensity exercise training during weight loss maintains fat oxidation by maintaining the sensitivity of the central nervous system, which tends to be reduced after weight loss alone.

Source:
van Aggel-Leijssen, Dorien P.C., et al. Short-term effects of weight loss with or without low-intensity exercise training on fat metabolism in obese men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition;73:523-31.

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