Research paper
Thomas DM, Bouchard C, Church T, Slentz C, Kraus WE, Redman LM, Martin CK, Silva AM, Vossen M, Westerterp K, Heymsfield SB. Why do individuals not lose more weight from an exercise intervention at a defined dose? An energy balance analysis. Obesity Reviews. 2012;13(10):835-847. doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01012.x
Why we cite it
Systematic review using mathematical energy balance modeling across 15 aerobic exercise intervention studies to quantify why exercise produces less weight loss than predicted. Concludes that low exercise-induced weight loss is ”primarily due to low doses of prescribed exercise energy expenditures compounded by a concomitant increase in caloric intake”. In the one study that held intake at baseline it finds RMR ”depressed by 7% beyond weight-related reductions suggesting that there may be an adaptive response”, and on indirect evidence it ”suggests if it exists, non-exercise activity does not change substantially during an exercise intervention” (corrected 2026-09-10 from ”Argues a hierarchy of causes … the secondary cause is metabolic adaptation … NEAT reduction plays a minimal role”: hierarchy, secondary and minimal are not the review’s, as Useful for was corrected to say the same evening). The critical Bouchard confined-study finding — that exercise produces the expected energy deficit when intake is controlled — directly supports the project’s message that exercise works but must be paired with attention to the eating side.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01012.x · PubMed 22681398 · Publisher