Does exercising with friend help to lose more weight?
Heading to the gym? Well, don’t
forget to take along your friend, for a new study has claimed that exercising
with a partner boosts weight loss.
To
reach the conclusion, Professor Shiriki Kumanyika and colleagues at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, conducted the
two-year trial. The study included 344 men and women.
The volunteers’ goal was to achieve and maintain a 5 per cent to 10 per cent
weight loss. They were educated on a healthy diet and physical activity, given
pedometers and enrolled in exercise sessions, reports The Telegraph .
The groups were split into three sections, those who trained alone, those who
had a partner that received little coaching and those who were with a friend
who also had a high level of coaching.
Their progress was then measured at intervals of six, 12, 18 and 24 months,
according to the research, published in the latest issue of Archives of
Internal Medicine journal.
After analyses, researchers found that the participants with a partner in the
high support group lost the most weight at all the measurement
periods.Kumanyika said: "We evaluated family and friend social support as
a specific cultural adaptation strategy.
"Beneficial effects on weight loss were linked to actual rather than
assigned partner participation and to partner success in losing weight. "Further
studies may elucidate ways to facilitate effective family or friend
participation and to improve absolute weight losses."
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