Ariana Fludd

EXS369 Research Methods

April 10, 2014
Did you know that more than 50% of Americans today are
overweight or obese? And of the 50%, 33% are children. The
obesity epidemic is one of the country's most serious health
problems. Obesity is one of the leading causes of serious health
diseases such as diabetes heart disease and high blood pressure
and in some cases death. So what I and others really want to know
is what are the best ways to trim fat and lose the excess weight?
Between resistance and aerobic training, which exercise plan is
more beneficial in weight loss? I found this topic very
interesting because I have been asked this question before. I
have decided that I would research different types of exercise
plans that people go on and monitor the weight loss over a short
period of time. Throughout this paper I want to explain or come
across an answer for which weight loss plan is most effective
with obesity?
Child obesity in the United States has grown tremendously in
recent years. Researchers found that adolescents are likely to
eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day if
their parents did as well. When adolescent watch their parents
eating fast food and drinking soda they pick up the same habits
as them. My opinion on the topic is that if children are so

active in the younger year then how do they become overweight?

As children they learn by following the footsteps of their
parents, so if the adult is eating large portions, the child will
do the same. Kids should participate in strengthening exercises
twice each week. These activities include push-ups, pull-ups,
gymnastics or playing on a jungle gym or other playground
equipment. With the lack of activities it can cause medical
condition. These problems include pre-diabetes, diabetes, heart
disease, hyperlipidemia (too much fat in the blood, clogs
arties), sleep apnea, bone conditions, gastro-intestinal disease,
and psychological problems that continue into adult hood. In
addition to the risk to kids in childhood, research over the last
40 years says that overweight kids are at greater risk of
becoming obese adults. If obese children would take part in more
activities and leisure sports it would have better effects on
their bodies.
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health
challenges of the 21st century. The problem is global and is
steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries,
particularly in urban settings because parents, less activities,
and unhealthy eating habits. They dont realizes how these
conditions affects children verbally, mentally, and physically
and when they finally realize its too late.

There are multiple types of workout plans that some work

better than others. For example there is aerobic training,
resistance training, 8 week plans and even 12 week plans. Obesity
is generally caused by a combination of excessive food energy
intake, lack of physical activity, and genetic weakness. Dieting
and physical exercise are the mainstays of treatment for obesity.
Certain diets can help with obesity,

by increasing the intake of

dietary fiber. Anti-obesity drugs can be taken to reduce appetite

or lower fat absorption when used together with an appropriate
diet.
The Atkins diet, or what people like to refer it as the
low-carb diet is very popular in todays generation. This
particular diet consists of the intake of fewer carb in the meals
we eat every day. Although obesity reviews findings from dietary
intervention studies suggest that a low-carbohydrate dietary
pattern(the Atkins diet) may be most effective in inducing weight
loss in the short term, there is no conclusive evidence that one
diet is superior to another in the long term.
Starting my experiment I would have three groups. I would
formulate a control group, this is where individuals wouldnt be
on any diet and just strictly exercise. I would create a group
that is on the strict workout plan and one that is more flexible.
Making and educated guess I would say from personal experience

that the strict exercise plan group would turn out to be more
success that the flexible workout plan. As far as independent and
dependent variables, my independent variable would be the weight
loss plan itself and the dependent would be the actual weight
loss and the rate in which these individual lose the weight. So
therefore, the amount of weight loss depends on which plan they
endure in and the amount of weight they lose.
AS I stated before, obesity is a leading preventable cause
of death worldwide, with increasing rates in adults and children.
Authorities view it as one of the most serious public health
problems of the 21st century. Most people dont have a serious
outlook on their health and think exercise is enough to maintain
weight, but they are wrong. Eating right and working out plays
into one when it comes to staying healthy and maintaining body
composition.
Dieting is a very broad topic. Diet and exercise are two of
the most common strategies for weight loss. A diet plus exercise
plan may be more effective for weight loss than a diet only
strategy in the long-term has not been conclusively established.
The objective of this study is to review the benefits of the two
and decide which weight loss plan is more effective with the same
amount of exercise.

Different types of diets are proposed to

promote weight loss such as low-calorie and fat-restricted diets

and low-carbohydrate diets. Obesity increases the risk of many

physical and mental conditions.
A sedentary lifestyle plays a significant role in obesity.
People that dont exercise or endure in any physical activity
feed into being obese. Even if a person is not overweight or
obese exercising is very beneficial for your health. Some of the
many benefits of exercise are most importantly is controls your
weight. Exercise also combats health conditions and disease,
improves your mood and boosts energy; it can promote better sleep
and so on. Besides exercising, people with sedentary lifestyles
try to avoid it and go a different route by losing the weight
through medical procedures.
Gastric bypass a way a person can lose majority of the
weight without enduring in exercise. Gastric bypass is major
surgery that shrinks the stomach's capacity from wine bottle to
shot glass size and reconfigures the small intestine. Most
patients lose about two-thirds of their excess weight within a
year of surgery. I believe that surgeries that this one is a hit
or miss. I have witnessed someone that has had the gastric bypass
surgery and within the year she was right back to the same size.
Liposuction is an option to remove small bulges of fat that diet
and exercise don't budge and to improve your body's shape. Even
though people choose medical procedures to lose weight fast I

believe its not the right way to go. It is not natural at all
and I believe it takes effort to get the shape you want.
The next alternative is dieting. The Atkins diet is very
popular among todays population. Millions of people around the
world have lost weight with the Atkins Diet, simply when you
control your carb intake, you tend to burn fat. It involves
limited intake of carbohydrates to change the body's metabolism
from processing glucose as energy over to converting stored body
fat to energy. The Atkins Diet restricts "net carbs which are
digestible carbohydrate grams that affect blood sugar less fiber
grams. Veganism is another way to lose weight. Veganism the
practice of abstaining from the use of animal products,
particularly in diet, anything that comes from an animal they do
not eat.
To test my research question, the population I chose to
experiment with is adolescents. I choose the adolescents
population because I feel as if their bodies are always changing
so the weight loss would be significantly easier. I will be
studying adolescents around the age of 13-19 and focusing on both
male and female. Supposedly there is a myth that men tend to lose
weight faster than women do. So I would like to see if this was
true. For the most part, the individuals that suffer from obesity
live a sedentary lifestyle. So the individuals I will be studying

will be untrained and non-athletes. Because I want such a tight

nit study, I will only have three groups of maybe 5 people. That
way I can look at each individual specifically. For over a period
of time maybe 2-3 months I will have one group endure in
resistance type exercise and the other group with aerobic
activity. Based on plans and procedure, over our 3 month period
time each group will exercise every week 3 times a week every
other day for 90 minutes. As every group will be on a diet, there
will be only one group that is just strictly diet and no
exercise. My hypothesis for this experiment is the group that
endures in aerobic exercise will have the greatest weight loss
results. I say this because when I think of resistance training I
automatically think muscle gain , body building ant not weight
loss.

References

Comparison Between the Effects of Continuous and Intermittent

Aerobic Exercise on Weight Loss and Body Fat Percentage in
Overweight and Obese Women:A Randomized Controlled TrialZahra
Alizadeh1,2, Ramin Kordi2, Mohsen Rostami2, Mohammad A.
Mansournia2,Seyyed M. J. Hosseinzadeh-Attar3, Javad Fallah2

E:\EXS 369\Exercise 7 benefits of regular physical activity Mayo Clinic.mht

Obesity Management Long-term effectiveness of diet-plus-exercise

interventions vs. diet-only interventions for weightloss: a metaanalysis T. Wu1,2, X. Gao1, M. Chen1 and R. M. van Dam1,3