Healthcare practitioners often prescribe exercise to help people lose weight and reduce their risk of weight-related diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the cluster of risk factors known as metabolic syndrome (MetS). But keeping the weight off is a challenge for many. Now, a new study suggests that exercising during weight regain can maintain improvements in metabolic health and disease risk.

The study included overweight men and women with measured characteristics of MetS.

All were given a diet and aerobic exercise plan that included supervised exercise five days a week, for four to six months. After losing weight, participants underwent programmed weight regain and were separated into two groups, one that exercised and one that didn’t.

Researchers found that the non-exercise group experienced rapid deterioration in weight loss-induced benefits to metabolic health. The exercise group, on the other hand, maintained improvements in almost all measures, including LDL and HDL cholesterol, oxygen consumption, blood pressure and glucose.

"It’s clear that the message to lose weight isn’t working because so many people regain weight. A new message is to keep exercising and maintain your weight to reduce disease risk and improve overall health," said the study’s lead author, Tom Thomas. "Don’t worry so much about losing weight, but focus on exercising and maintaining your current weight."