BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 26 Dieting is as effective at losing weight as is a combination of diet and exercise, as long as the calories eaten and burned are equal, says a U.S. study.The research also indicates that the addition of exercise to a weight-loss regimen does not change body composition and abdominal-fat distribution, debunking the idea that specific exercises can reduce fat in targeted areas -- such as exercise to reduce fat around a person's midsection.It's all about the calories, said study senior author Dr. Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. So long as the energy deficit is the same, body weight, fat weight, and abdominal fat will all decrease in the same way.Participants in both the calorie-restricted group and the exercise group lost approximately 10 percent of their body weight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their abdominal visceral fat.The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.Copyright 2007 by UPI
