New York — Overweight dieters who cut calories are likely to lose more bone mass than weight if they don’t exercise, says a study that highlights the importance of both diet and exercise.
If you just cut calories — and don’t exercise — you harm your bones two ways: you may cut nutrients needed to maintain strong bones, and you don’t stimulate bone growth, indicated the study that looked 46 men and women with an average age of 57.
Dennis T. Villareal and colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis studied all these typical Americans who were overweight; none got regular exercise, reported the online edition of health Magazine WebMD.
Of the 46 participants, 36 agreed to lose weight. Half of them ate less — about 20 percent fewer calories. The other half worked out more — burning off about 20 percent more calories.
For comparison, 10 more participants got advice on healthy lifestyles but didn’t diet or exercise. Compared with the 10 who only got advice, the dieters and the exercisers both lost weight.
But, unlike the exercisers, the dieters lost more than weight. They lost bone, too.
And they lost it in the areas where elderly people are most likely to suffer fractures: spine, hips, and upper legs.
“Calorie restriction is beneficial, but if you don’t combine it with exercise you lose bone,” Villareal was quoted as saying.
“You might get lighter without exercise — but that’s because you have less skeleton than you did before. That is a really big concern for people as they age,” the researcher said.