Exercise improves sleep, and together, the two help maintain weight loss in people with obesity, shows a new analysis.

“Our results show that there are a lot of variables that impact the regain of weight lost,” said Signe Torekov, PhD, from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who presented the findings at the European Congress on Obesity 2022 during a press conference and as a poster.  

“Our results show that there are a lot of variables that impact the regain of weight lost,” said Signe Torekov, PhD, from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who presented the findings at the European Congress on Obesity 2022 during a press conference and as a poster. 

“How you sleep, including sleep quality and duration, should be taken into consideration because it is so difficult to maintain weight loss,” she said.

Asked to comment, Christopher E. Kline, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said the findings “do raise the possibility as to whether intervening upon sleep after weight loss would help maintain the weight loss,” although he added the results were a secondary analysis of a study, and so causality could not be inferred.

“What’s interesting is that it’s not always duration that is the dimension of sleep most strongly associated with better weight loss,” he told Medscape Medical News, commenting on the fact that exercise seemed to improve sleep quality most of all. 

Get the full story at medscape.com.