Exercising while dieting could be bad for bone health
Combining exercise and dieting may not be a good idea as it may impact your bone health, according to a new study.
“This is important for women because as we age, our bone health starts to decline. Your calorie intake and exercise routine can have a major impact on the strength of your bones and your risk for fracture,” said the senior author of the study, Maya Styner, who is an associate professor at University of North Carolina School of Medicine in the US.
The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, looked at what happens to bone marrow fat and overall bone health when restricting calories.
The research involved four groups of mice in total – a group on a regular diet, another one on a calorierestricted diet, a regular diet group that exercised and a calorie-restricted group that exercised.
Mice in the calorierestricted group ate 30 % less than what regular diet mice ate. Applying the observations in the context of humans, United States Department of Agriculture stated that a ‘moderately active’ woman around the age of 30 should consume 2,000 calories per day.
A 30 per cent reduction would equal a diet of about 1,400 calories per day, which is around the amount suggested to most of the women trying to lose weight at a rate of one pound a week.
Styner found that the mice in the calorie-restricted group lost weight, but also had a significant increase in the bone marrow fat.
“This was mild caloric restriction, and we found a significant increase of fat in the bone marrow. This group was also found to have developed an overall decrease in the bone quantity because of the cut in the calorie intake,” Styner said.
Till date the bone fat is poorly understood and as a result, is thought to be harmful to our bones and that of other mammals as well. Less fat is usually considered as an indication of better bone health.
“Looking at this from a human perspective, even a lower calorie diet that’s nutritionally sound can have negative effects on bone health, especially when paired with an exercise regimen,” said Styner.