Abstract

Abstract Objective: To investigate the best statistical models that describe the effect of physical activity on BMI.*Design*: Cross-sectional analyses of physical activity and BMI data. *Subjects*: 107 obese, overweight, and healthy college students (mean duration of physical activity for the normal, overweight, and obese students: 89, 59, and 24 months, respectively; mean BMI for the normal, overweight, and obese students: 21.61, 27.07, and 35.54 kg/m2, respectively).*Measurements*: Inverse linear, inverse logarithmic, and inverse logistics models were used to analyze survey data for physical activity (measured by both frequency and duration of exercise) and BMI. Gender, age, and physical intensity variables were also statistically controlled. *Results*: Coefficients of determination, r-squared, showed the inverse logarithmic model is more accurate in describing the effect of physical activity on BMI than is the inverse linear model. The inverse logistic method also showed physical activity affects BMI. Conclusions: Although the inverse logarithmic method can be used in some cases, the inverse logistic model seems to be theoretically and empirically best suited in describing the relationship between physical activity and body weight.

Highlights

  • Researchers, health specialists, and public officials have long known that an increased level of exercise is negatively related with body fat or weight

  • Given the foregoing, we argue that the pattern of the relationship between physical inactivity/activity and body fat or weight, with its upper and lower thresholds, would be best described by the logistic or probit model

  • This study employs a cross-sectional research design and ordinary least square (OLS) and Logistic regressions to test the impact of physical activity on body mass index (BMI)

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Summary

Introduction

Researchers, health specialists, and public officials have long known that an increased level of exercise is negatively related with body fat or weight. Hemmingsson & Ekelund (2007) find that the association between physical activity and body mass index (BMI) is stronger in obese individuals than in non-obese persons. Their findings led them to question the conventional inverse-linear effect of physical activity on BMI. Several researchers have demonstrated an empirical pattern of a decreasing effect of physical activity on body weight [11,12,13,14] Such findings suggest the presence of a threshold of physical activity, which occurs when a person moves from an overweight to a normalweight status

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