Research
Energy balance
Adding exercise to behavioral weight loss interventions improves both short-term and long-term weight loss outcomes compared to diet alone, although it does not completely prevent weight regain.
Include exercise in your weight loss plan. It helps you lose more weight initially and helps you keep more of it off in the long run compared to dieting alone. While it might not stop all weight regain, it significantly improves your odds of success.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Adding a strong exercise component to this behavioral intervention improved weight loss both short term and at 18-month follow-up.
Why this rating
Based on multiple studies (Pavlou et al., 1989; Sikand et al., 1988) cited in the text.
Source
Long-term maintenance of weight loss: Current status.
Robert W. Jeffery et al. · Health Psychology · 2000
DOI 10.1037/0278-6133.19.suppl1.5
narrative_reviewCited 1,104×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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