Found an old study from 1990 from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This is a perception can be a competitor prepping for a contest where kcalories are controlled and restricted in a sense to induce lipolysis or change body fat composition. There was no difference in body fat mass loss between subjects who exercised at a high 80-90% peak VO2 and the other group who exercised at a lower intensity of 40-50% peak VO2.
Exercise intensity does not affect the composition of diet- and exercise-induced body mass loss
DL Ballor, JP McCarthy and EJ Wilterdink
Department of Physical Education and Dance, University of Wisconsin- Madison 53706.
The effect of caloric restriction (1200 kcal/d intake) in combination with high (High) (80-90% of peak VO2) or low (Low) (40-50% of peak VO2) exercise work rates on the composition of lost body mass was determined in 27 obese women (percent fat, 36.7 +/- 4.2%; mean +/- SD). All subjects trained 3 d/wk for 8 wk, with the High (n = 14) and Low (n = 13) groups exercising for 25 and 50 min/d, respectively. After posttesting there were no differences between the groups with respect to pre- to posttest changes (mean of combined groups) in body mass (- 7%), fat-free mass (-10%), fat mass (-16%), percent fat (-10%), and sum of five skinfold-thickness measurements (-16%). This study suggests that with regard to conservation of fat-free mass, the selection of an exercise intensity for a diet and exercise regimen may be left to the preference of the clinician and/or dieter.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 51, 142-146, Copyright © 1990 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc
2 Comments
huh that’s an interesting study, but the women in the test were just using cycles to exercise, so I don’t know what that tells you about weight training…
That is because most studies are done on bikes and treadmills in labs to measure intensity via VO2 Max. How does one accurately measure intensity of weight training? I suppose one could measure HR Max, but it only lasts for 15-20sec per bout. Do you take a muscle biopsy to measure muscle damage? Creatinine or creatine kinase may be a an ok measure.. but it doesnt measure intensity. This study was to study the relationship with intensity and body composition.