ReviewiScience2021
Obesity treatment: Weight loss versus increasing fitness and physical activity for reducing health risks.
Review in iScience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 143 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cardiorespiratory fitness, body mass index and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of sports medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Physical activity is associated with lower mortality in adults with obesity: a systematic review with meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Safety of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs as Part of Enhanced Recovery After Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity surgery · 2024Pooled it
- The Benefits of Physical Activity for People with Obesity, Independent of Weight Loss: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Objectively determined physical activity and adiposity measures in adult women: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Pooled it
- An experimental investigation of the stigmatization of weight loss and regain from GLP-1 receptor agonist use and cessation.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Trial
- Prevention of type 2 diabetes through prediabetes remission without weight loss.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- A gender-sensitized lifestyle intervention powered by sport fandom in men with overweight or obesity: a 1-year cost-effectiveness analysis of the Hockey FIT Trial.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Machine Learning for Estimating Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients With Obesity: Protocol for a Retrospective and Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Knee Arthroscopy in Morbidly Obese Patients: Perioperative Challenges and Technical Considerations to Optimize Outcomes.Journal of orthopaedic case reports · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between theNutrients · 2026Article
- Safety and effectiveness of diet and detox teas for weight loss: a mini-review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- A prospective observational study of lifestyle behaviors and biomarkers to promote cardiometabolic health in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2026Article
- Silly walks: An urgent practical solution to the inactivity and obesity pandemics.Experimental physiology · 2025Review
- Biomarkers of aging: from molecules and surrogates to physiology and function.Physiological reviews · 2025Review
- Increasing the health span: unique role for exercise.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2025Review
- Joint associations of diet and physical activity with incident type 2 diabetes and hypertension: an analysis of 144 288 UK Biobank participants.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding a Weight-Neutral Approach to Health Promotion in Primary Care Settings.Cureus · 2025Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We propose a weight-neutral strategy for obesity treatment on the following grounds: (1) the mortality risk associated with obesity is largely attenuated or eliminated by moderate-to-high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) or physical activity (PA), (2) most cardiometabolic risk markers associated with obesity can be improved with exercise training independent of weight loss and by a magnitude similar to that observed with weight-loss programs, (3) weight loss, even if intentional, is not consistently associated with lower mortality risk, (4) increases in CRF or PA are consistently associated with greater reductions in mortality risk than is intentional weight loss, and (5) weight cycling is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes including increased mortality. Adherence to PA may improve if health care professionals consider PA and CRF as essential vital signs and consistently emphasize to their patients the myriad benefits of PA and CRF in the absence of weight loss.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.