14 DAY TRIAL // People who have higher than normal BMIs and want to prevent diabetes must lose weight in order to cut the risk for the terrible condition. This is a commonly acknowledged fact, but this gives rise to a new question: which shedding weight method is the most appropriate and is more efficient in warding off diabetes risk - a restricted, low-calorie diet or 'burning' fat by exercising regularly?
If a previous study has found that when it comes to weight loss women prefer dieting, while men prefer working out, a recent study carried out by Saint Louis University researchers shows that both methods are equally effective in reducing diabetes risk in an individual, independent of sex, age etc.
Even if at the beginning of the study scientists tended to believe that an individual who exercises moderately and on a regular basis has a greater chance of reducing diabetes risk than one who adopts a calorie-restrictive diet, findings showed that people who want to prevent diabetes can whether diet or work out - the result would be the same.
"Both diet and exercise provide profound benefits to reduce the risk of diabetes. Both those who restrict calories and those who exercise benefit from weight loss. We thought exercise probably would produce greater benefits. But both of these are providing beneficial health improvements," said lead author of the study Edward Weiss, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Saint Louis University's Doisy College of Health Sciences.
The study funded by the National Institutes of Health was conducted on 46 subjects with ages ranging between 50 and 60 and with BMIs from 23 to 30, therefore from the high end of the normal body weight category to overweight, but not obese. The participants were assigned to 3 groups: 18 in the exercise group, 18 in the restricted-calorie group and 10 in the control group.
The follow-up study lasted for a whole year and overall results showed that subjects in both exercise and low-calorie diet group lost about the same amount of body weight, while glucose levels and insulin resistance improved equally in these participants. On the other hand, volunteers in the control group did not lose any weight and their glucose tolerance and insulin resistance remained steady.
Prof. Weiss concluded that further research is going to be carried out in order to investigate if combining the two weight loss methods - diet and exercise - is more effective in reducing diabetes risk in individuals with normal to high BMIs: "The next step is to determine what happens when you exercise and diet to lose weight. We don't know if the combination is going to provide greater benefits."