Monday, August 11, 2008

Weight Watchers Vs Weight Lifting - Which One is the Biggest Loser?

The Battlefield:

A University of Missouri researcher studied a specific amount of participants and watched to see what program helped people...

  • lose body fat
  • lose body weight
  • gain health benefits

These participants stayed with their particular program for 12 weeks.

They only issues I have with this is they didn't say what the fitness group did and they didn't say if the Weight Watchers groups did anything else to help out.

There's only one place to go from here...

The Results:

Steve Ball, assistant professor of exercise physiology in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences... geezz... how is that for a title?

Anyway, he found that those who participated in the Weight Watchers program had no affect on their body fat percentage. In fact, In a lot of them it went up. The amount of lean body mass these participants had also when down.

The groups that did some fitness program at a gym had very little drop in body weight but did find a decrease in abdominal fat. They also witnessed an increase in lean body mass.

Finally, the weight watchers group had a much higher percentage of participants finish the program because they were part of a support group. The support group provided them the motivation to keep going when things got difficult.

The gym group found that a lot more would give up... in fact Mr. Ball states that on average 50% of people who start at the gym will give up 6 months later. This due to a lack of support and motivation.

All in all...

No wonder the best results would come in doing both the fitness program and the Weight Watcher program in this case. And why is this so?

Weight Watchers is a nutritional program and it proves that if you watch what you eat then you will lose weight. But not all weight is good weight to lose.

Losing weight through nutrition and building muscle through an effective fitness program will...

  • raise your metabolism
  • increase you lean body mass
  • decrease you body fat
  • improve you mood
  • improve you body
  • and so much more!

There is only one place to go from here. You need both a nutritional program and a solid fitness program. Sure Weight Watchers can work, but you need something. In regards to fitness you need to lift weights... it's just as simple as that.

The support group for motivation is HUGE. Don't sit there hanging by a thread... get involved in a support group now!

Dan Boyle is a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer. He has been involved in the fitness industry for over 7 years and has set up the ultimate support group. To learn more and get involved in a results driven support group, visit http://www.fitness-analyzer.com

1 comment:

Deb Williams said...

wow interesting...yet cool article I would have never guessed!