In the authors' words
“Trials indicated favorable weight changes with interventions that were statistically significantly different from control groups in 4 of 5 trials of counseling, but not in 2 trials of exercise.”
What was measured
- Body fat and weight No difference found
About the study
- Type
- Systematic review
- Who took part
- Midlife women
- How many
- 51,638
- Exercise
- General physical activity
- Cited
- 12 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 35914264
How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.
Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.
Similar studies
- A meta-analysis of 7 RCTs found programmed exercise for 3 to 4 months lowered insulin levels, HOMA-IR, BMI and body fat in postmenopausal women, while longer programs mainly reduced waist circumference.
- A meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials in menopausal women found exercise improved body fat, waist circumference, triglycerides, and lumbar spine bone density compared with no exercise.
- A meta-analysis of 11 trials in overweight or obese peri and postmenopausal women found exercise alone reduced body weight less than diet, but adding exercise to diet increased weight and fat loss.
- A review of seven RCTs in women aged 40 to 60 found counseling interventions modestly reduced weight gain, while exercise-only trials showed no differences and higher fall rates.