Research

Energy balance

Reallocating time from sedentary behavior to physical activity (both LPA and MVPA) is associated with reduced adiposity markers, including body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, and waist circumference, with MVPA showing greater effects than LPA.

To reduce body fat and waist circumference, replace sitting time with physical activity. While moderate-to-vigorous activity (MVPA) offers the greatest benefit, even light physical activity (LPA) substitutions can help reduce BMI and body fat percentage across all age groups.

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For adiposity, it seems that reallocating sedentary time to physical activity may be associated with reduced body mass index, body fat percentage, and waist circumference in all age groups, with the magnitude of associations being greater for higher intensities of physical activity.
Jozo Grgić et al. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · 2018

Why this rating

Based on 29 studies focusing on adiposity, mostly moderate-to-high quality.

Source

Health outcomes associated with reallocations of time between sleep, sedentary behaviour, and physical activity: a systematic scoping review of isotemporal substitution studies

Jozo Grgić et al. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · 2018

DOI 10.1186/s12966-018-0691-3

systematic_reviewCited 370×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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