Increase daily steps to 8,500 and keep weight off after dieting: Study

Doing around 8500 steps a day can help people keep weight off after dieting according to new researchTo be presented at the lsquoEuropean Congress on Obesityrsquo ECO 2026 in Istanbul Turkey from May 1215 the study showed that there was a clear link between increasing step count and preventing weight regainSpecifically it was important to increase step count during the weight loss phase and maintain this increase during the weight maintenance phase Patients who did so regained less weight said the study published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public HealthldquoThe most important ndash and greatest ndash challenge when treating obesity is preventing weight regainrdquo explains Professor Marwan El Ghoch from University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Modena ItalyAround 80 per cent of people with overweight or obesity who initially lose weight tend to put some or all of it back on again within three to five yearsldquoThe identification of a strategy that would solve this problem and help people maintain their new weight would be of huge clinical valuerdquo he saidProfessor El Ghoch and researchers from Italy and Lebanon conducted a systematic review and metaanalysis of existing research to find out moreDaily number of steps was measured at the start of the trials at the end of the weight loss phase average duration of 79 months and at the end of the weight maintenance phase average duration of 103 monthsBoth groups of patients had a similar number of steps per day at the start of the trials 7280 in LSM group vs 7180 in control group indicating that they had similar lifestyles at baselineThe control group did not increase their number of steps and did not lose weight at any timeIn contrast the LSM group increased their step count to 8454 a day by the end of the weight loss phase They also lost a significant amount of their body weight 43937 on average around 4 kgThey maintained this higher step count and at the end of the weight maintenance phase they were doing 8241 steps daily They also kept off most of the weight they had lost average weight loss at end of trials of 328 per cent around 3 kgProfessor El Ghosh said that lifestyle modification programmes can lead to a meaningful amount of weight loss long termThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever