Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues tracked 201 overweight and obese women over a two-year period. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on how much and how intensely they exercised and how many calories they burned.
The participants were told to eat or drink no more than 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Researchers found that women who had done more physical activity lost more than 10 percent of their weight compared with those who did not lose as much weight.
Some 25 percent of the participants managed to keep 10 percent or more of their original body weight off over the two years. They reported exercising for at least 55 minutes a day, five days a week.
The research is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal.
