Healthy Diet and Exercise are Effective Weight Loss Strategies for Heart Health

A new study has found that a healthy diet and exercise are effective strategies for weight loss, which can reduce the risk of heart disease. However, skipping meals and taking prescription diet pills are linked to minimal weight loss or weight gain. The research analyzed data on over 20,000 U.S. adults, comparing weight-loss strategies and results in the context of the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8.” This checklist promotes heart disease risk reduction through the pursuit of recommended metrics for body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, smoking, physical activity, diet, and sleep.

The study found that even losing a “clinically significant” 5% of body weight did not eliminate the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in many of the study’s participants. The average composite score on eight risk factors for heart disease was the same across the entirety of the study population — regardless of reported weight changes, up or down.

The Ohio State University researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine individuals’ values for Life’s Essential 8 metrics and assess their diet quality according to the Healthy Eating Index. They found that people with clinically significant weight loss had higher diet quality and engaged in more physical activity, resulting in improvements in some health indices.

However, individuals who did not lose at least 5% of their weight reported using non-evidence-based approaches for weight loss, such as skipping meals, prescription diet pills, low-carb and liquid diets, taking laxatives or vomiting, and smoking.

Re-reported from the story originally published in ANI English