Dieting without exercise harms bone health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men and women who lose weight through caloric restriction, without exercise, also lose bone at the hip and spine, increasing their risk for the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis and fractures, a study shows. Adding regular exercise to a calorie-restricted diet helps shield the bones from the harmful effects of dieting.

"Exercise protects against bone loss during voluntary weight loss," Dr. Dennis T. Villareal, who led the study, told Reuters Health. "Therefore, it would be important to combine calorie restriction and exercise to derive the benefits of weight loss and preserve bone."

However, to maintain healthy bones, "exercise should be an important component of a weight loss program to offset adverse effects of calorie restriction on bone," the team concludes.

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Lack of sleep may spur weight gain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle-aged women may be able to sleep their way to a trimmer body, new study findings suggest.

In a study that followed more than 68,000 U.S. women for 16 years, researchers found that those who caught more zzz's each night tended to put on less weight during middle-age.

What's more, women who typically clocked 5 hours of sleep were one third more likely than those who slept for 7 hours to have a substantial weight gain -- 33 pounds or more -- during the study period.

It's also possible that people who sleep fewer hours either eat more or, because of fatigue, exercise less often.

Whatever the reason, the new findings suggest that sleeping 7 hours or more each night could help prevent the middle-age spread, according to the study authors.

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