Keep Weight down by Jogging Three Times per Week

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We know that the best way to lose weight is to adjust our intake by reducing calories, increasing amount of vegetables and fruit and cutting down on meat and ultra-processed foods. New research identified six specific exercises that seem to offer the best chance of keeping your weight down – even if your genes are against you.

Findings

We know that a range of factors influence weight, including those related to nutrition and exercise but genetics can also influence weight.  Based on an analysis of 18,424 Han Chinese adults in Taiwan, aged between 30 and 70 years old, the best ways of reducing body mass index (BMI) in individuals predisposed to obesity are: regular jogging, mountain climbing, walking, power walking, dancing (to an “international standard” such as ballroom dancing), and lengthy yoga practices. Interestingly enough, these five popular exercises in Taiwan (cycling, stretching exercise, qigong [Chinese system of physical exercises and breathing control related to tai chi], swimming, and Dance Dance Revolution a computer game based on dancing with music videos[DDR]) cannot mitigate genetic susceptibility to obesity measures. These showed no changes in BMI.

What is BMI?

Body Mass Index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. 

BMI Categories: 
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9 
Overweight = 25–29.9 
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Other Measurements

Besides BMI, the team also looked at four other obesity measures for a more complete picture: body fat percentage (BFP), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).

In addition to a physical examination, each participant completed a questionnaire through a face-to-face interview with one of the TWB researchers. Questions addressed personal information and lifestyle factors. Regular exercise was defined as engaging in 30 minutes of “exercise” three times a week. “Exercise” included only leisure-time activities such as jogging, yoga, mountain climbing, cycling, swimming, DDR, playing basketball, etc. Occupational activities such as physical work or heavy manual work were not counted as “exercise”.

Jogging is Best

Regular jogging – 30 minutes, three times a week – turned out to be the most effective way of counteracting obesity genes across all of them. The researchers also suggest, based on the information dug up in the Taiwan BioBank database, that the less effective forms of exercise typically don’t use up as much energy, which is why they don’t work quite so well.

“Obesity is caused by genetics, lifestyle factors, and the interplay between them,” epidemiologist Wan-Yu Lin, from the National Taiwan University, told Newsweek. “While hereditary materials are inborn, lifestyle factors can be determined by oneself.”

Being obese affects our physiological health by increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, some cancers, diabetes and other issues; and there’s evidence that being seriously overweight can have a negative effect on our brains too.

Losing weight is not easy, the number one change you can make to lose weight is your diet. However when picking exercises to help you achieve weight loss, jogging three times per week for 30 minutes seems to be the best option. 

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