Understanding the Interaction Between Physical Activity and Diet for the Promotion of Health and Fitness

The benefits of a healthy diet and regular physical activity and exercise are well documented in the literature. However, efforts to counter the global obesity epidemic and related metabolic diseases through diet or exercise alone have been of limited success, suggesting that new and more refined approaches are needed which integrate diet and physical activity. While it appears intuitive that combining diet and physical activity results in larger health benefits than approaches using diet or physical activity alone, there is strong evidence that these two lifestyle components are interrelated with each other. For example, the potential benefits of strategies aimed at increasing physical activity may be overridden if increases in physical activity increase energy intake and evoke unhealthy food choices. Likewise, dietary interventions such as caloric restriction or time-restricted feeding may result in compensatory reductions in physical activity behavior, which could negatively affect physical fitness and performance, undermine weight loss success, and expose individuals to greater risk for future weight regain and other associated diseases.

The goal of this Research Topic is to strengthen our understanding of how physical activity and diet are related with each other in the context of health and fitness promotion. A deeper understanding of the interaction between these two critical lifestyle approaches is crucial for the development of combined diet and exercise interventions that result in successful, long-term health improvements while avoiding unhealthy compensatory behavior in the other domain.

The scope of the Research Topic includes both Original Research as well as Review articles focused on combined diet and exercise approaches targeting health-related outcomes. In terms of original research, we invite both intervention and observational studies in humans across the whole life-span.

Outcomes of interest include (but are not limited to):
• Body weight, body composition and weight maintenance
• Energy intake, energy expenditure and energy balance
• Appetite and food choices
• Compensatory changes in free-living and non-exercise physical activity
• Physical fitness and performance
• Metabolic and endocrine biomarkers

Acknowledgment: Dr Hande Hofmann will assist the Topic Editors as a Coordinator by reviewing relevant manuscripts and assisting with communication.