Body News.

Body News By Kristin Cobb

Weight Myth

It is assumed that dieting and exercising reduces weight better than dieting alone. But in a six-month study, people who cut calories by 25 percent and others who cut calories by 12.5 percent and burned 12.5 percent doing aerobics lost the same amount of weight (10 percent), total body fat (24 percent), and abdominal fat (27 percent). Also, dieters' muscle mass and basal metabolism decreased even with exercise, says Leanne M. Redman of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge. She says people should exercise for its health benefits (for the heart, muscles, and immune system), but weight loss will happen as long as the body takes in fewer calories than it burns.

Body News By Kristin Cobb

22%

22% more calories per day are consumed by women today compared with 1971.

-- Centers for Disease Control