Efficacy of a randomized trial examining commercial weight loss programs and exercise on metabolic syndrome in overweight and obese women

What is it about?

The novelty of the paper is that while all programs recommend that the consumer engage in physical activity, only the Curves program provides a diet and exercise program. In essence, this investigation was not performed to compare commercial diets plus exercise or diet alone, per se, but to assess the utility of commercialized programs available to the public on health outcomes. To this end, we found that the Curves program showed more robust effects on metabolic syndrome and a number of other parameters related to health more so than the diet only programs recommending PA. We also show that that despite these recommendations, participants in the aforementioned diet programs do not increase physical activity of their own volition. Finally, an unexpected novelty of our paper is that those in the Curves and Weight Watchers programs significantly decrease daily sitting time. As you are aware, diet, exercise, metabolic syndrome and sitting time are all very popular in the literature, but rarely, if ever, examined together.

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