Losing weight is one way to prevent diseases, such as NASH. Sport allows you to achieve this if the physical activity reaches a certain duration, regardless of the frequency.
- Sport helps you lose weight, and therefore prevent the onset of certain diseases, including NASH.
- Researchers have been interested in the link between frequency of sporting activity and weight loss.
- They observe that for the same duration of practice, sport allows you to lose weight regardless of the frequency.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, commonly called fatty liver disease, is caused by the accumulation of fat in liver cells. Ultimately, it increases the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer. In France, one in five people are affected. Weight loss, through sport and diet, is one of the means of prevention.
Regarding physical activity, researchers have been interested in the frequency necessary to successfully lose weight. They publish their results in The Obesity Society.
How often should you exercise to lose weight?
This team from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences compared weekend athletes to those who practice physical activity regularly during the week. As a reminder, the World Health Organization recommends practicing at least 2h30 of moderate physical activity per week or 1h15 at high intensity. In their study, the researchers used data from more than 9,600 participants in a health and nutrition survey, carried out between 2011 and 2018. Information on abdominal fat levels was collected, as well as responses to questionnaires. on physical activity levels. In total, around 770 participants were weekend athletes, that is to say they condensed their sporting activity over one or two days, nearly 3,280 did sport regularly during the week and finally 5,580 did not practice it. . Compared to inactive people, the other participants had similar levels of body and abdominal fat and similar body mass indices.
For the authors, this means that sport is effective for losing weight, whatever the frequency, provided that there is equivalent duration of practice.
Sport and weight loss: the main thing is to move!
For Lihua Zhang, one of the study’s authors, said these findings could be particularly important for people with sedentary jobs such as office workers, bus drivers, etc. “These people struggle to catch up on their daily exercise routine to offset the risk of a sedentary lifestyle, but have less free time to go to the gymshe recalls. Our study could offer them an alternative choice to stay fit.”
She even believes that the weekend athlete model should be encouraged among people who cannot exercise regularly during the week. “This study reaffirms the old adage about physical activity and health: any activity is better than no activityadds Beverly Tchang, professor of clinical medicine in New York, in a communicated. The weekend athletes’ training was of higher intensity and longer duration, and higher intensity and longer duration were correlated with lower levels of abdominal fat.” When it comes to sports activity and weight loss, the most important thing is to move!
