CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 686Obesity, Physical Activity, DietPhysical Activity and HealthCardiovascular and exercise physiology

A meta-analysis of the past 25 years of weight loss research using diet, exercise or diet plus exercise intervention

Miller, WC, Koceja, DM, Hamilton, EJ·1997·International Journal of Obesity
DOI 10.1038/sj.ijo.0800499
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objective The therapeutic effectiveness of diet, exercise, and diet plus exercise for weight loss in obesity was determined. Data sources All human research reported in English, published in peer-reviewed scientific journals within the past 25 y was reviewed. Study selection Acceptance criteria (n = 493 from > 700 studies) were that a therapeutic intervention of diet, exercise or diet plus exercise was employed, specifically for weight reduction in obese adult humans and that weight change was reported numerically. Only aerobic exercise studies were included, while drug, hormone and surgical treatments were excluded. Data extraction All data were extracted by the same investigator from the original research report. Except for gender and program type, all extracted data were numerical. Data synthesis ANOVA, with a Newman-Keuls post hoc test, was used to determine differences among programs (P < 0.05). One analysis was performed on the group mean data and one based on effect sizes. Analyses were repeated using initial body weight, initial percent body fat and program length, as covariates. Results Primarily, subjects aged 40 y have been studied (39.5 +/- 0.4 y, mean +/- s.e.m.) who are only moderately obese (92.7 +/- 0.9 kg, 33.2 +/- 0.5 body mass index (BMI), 33.4 +/- 0.7% body fat); for short durations (15.6 +/- 0.6 weeks). Exercise studies were of a shorter duration, used younger subjects who weighed less, had lower BMI and percentage body fat values, than diet or diet plus exercise studies. Despite these differences, weight lost through diet, exercise and diet plus exercise was 10.7 +/- 0.5, 2.9 +/- 0.4* and 11.0 +/- 0.6 kg, respectively. However, at one-year follow-up, diet plus exercise tended to be the superior program. Effect size and covariate analyses revealed similar program differences. Conclusion Weight loss research over the past 25 y has been very narrowly focused on a middle age population that is only moderately obese, while the interventions lasted for only short periods of time. The data shows, however, that a 15-week diet or diet plus exercise program, produces a weight loss of about 11 kg, with a 6.6 +/- 0.5 and 8.6 +/- 0.8 kg maintained loss after one year, respectively.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/sj.ijo.0800499

Cites

9 of 9 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Miller, W., Koceja, D., & Hamilton, E.
Affiliations
Indiana University Bloomington (US)
Venue
International Journal of Obesity
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
1997-10
Volume
21
Issue
10
Pages
941-947
ISSN
  • 0307-0565 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5497
DOI
10.1038/sj.ijo.0800499
OpenAlex
W2140653847
Semantic Scholar
8d5ccf66cb397dd184b954e7877e2a3f95fdd57e
Cited by
686
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 31
FWCI
2.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • International Journal of Obesity (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
Keywords
obesity, weight loss, dietary intervention, aerobic exercise, weight loss maintenance, long-term weight loss, body mass index, body fat percentage, intervention duration, effect size
MeSH terms
Adult, Body Composition, Combined Modality Therapy, Diet, Reducing, Humans, Obesity, Weight Loss, Exercise

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review