Critical Reappraisal of the Role and Importance of Exercise Intervention in the Treatment of Obesity in Adults

Abstract

In the treatment of obesity in adults, exercise intervention is recommended and some people with obesity even prefer exercise above dietary intervention as a single weight-loss strategy. However, evidence is accumulating that the long-term body weight and adipose tissue mass loss ​as a result of exercise intervention in these individuals is disappointingly small. Although this could be related to various clinical reasons, more recent evidence reveals that also (patho)physiological abnormalities are involved which cannot be remediated by exercise intervention, especially in metabolically compromised patients. As a result, the role and importance of exercise intervention in the treatment of obesity deserve significant reconsideration to avoid confusion and disappointment amongst clinicians, patients and society. Hence, to reduce adipose tissue mass and body weight, dietary intervention is much more effective than exercise intervention, and is, therefore, of key importance in this endeavour. However, dietary interventions must be supplemented by exercise training to induce clinically relevant changes in specific cardiovascular or metabolic risk factors like blood pressure, blood triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, as well as visceral adipose tissue mass, physical fitness, muscle mass and strength, quality of life and life expectancy. This allows individuals with obesity to preserve their cardiometabolic health or to shift from a metabolically unhealthy phenotype to a metabolically healthy phenotype. Signifying the true clinical value of exercise interventions might lead to a better understanding and appreciation of the goals and associated effects when implemented in the multidisciplinary treatment of obesity, for which a proper tailoring of exercise prescription is required.