In a new study from Wake Forest School of Medicine, researchers found Cutting just 200 calories a day with moderate exercise reaped bigger rewards than exercising alone for older, obese adults.
Among older adults with obesity, combining aerobic exercise with a moderate reduction in daily calories resulted in greater improvements in aortic stiffness (a measure of vascular health, which impacts cardiovascular disease).
Modifiable lifestyle factors such as a healthy diet and regular physical activity may help offset age-related increases in aortic stiffness.
Although aerobic exercise generally has favorable effects on aortic structure and function, previous studies have shown that exercise alone may not be sufficient to improve aortic stiffness in older adults with obesity.
In the study, the team tested 160 sedentary adults, ages 65–79 years with obesity.
Participants were assigned to one of three intervention groups for 20 weeks: 1) exercise only with their regular diet; 2) exercise plus moderate calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 250 calories/day); or 3) exercise plus more intensive calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 600 calories/day).
The team found that weight loss of nearly 10% of total body weight or about 20 pounds over the five-month study period was linked to significant improvements in aortic stiffness.
This only occurred in the participants assigned to the exercise plus moderate calorie restriction group.
None of the aortic stiffness measures changed significantly in either the exercise-only group or the exercise plus more intensive calorie restriction group.
Changes in BMI, total fat mass, percent body fat, belly fat and waist circumference were greater in both of the calorie-restricted groups compared to the exercise-only group.
These findings indicate that lifestyle changes designed to increase aerobic activity and moderately decrease daily calorie intake may help to reduce aortic stiffness and improve overall vascular health.
These results suggest that combining exercise with modest calorie restriction — as opposed to more intensive calorie restriction or no-calorie restriction — likely maximizes the benefits on vascular health.
They also optimize weight loss and improvements in body composition and body fat distribution.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about heart problem linked to 5 times higher death risk in COVID-19, and drug that may prevent respiratory and heart damage in COVID-19.
For more information about heart health, please see a recent case about fitness didn’t keep him from heart problems or COVID-19, but it did help him recover, and results showing six unusual signs that you may have heart disease.
The study is published in Circulation. One author of the study is Tina E. Brinkley, Ph.D.
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