Abstract
We aimed to examine the relationship between physical activity (PA) and change in body weight and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in severely obese men and women. Thirty-five subjects (10 men, body mass index 43.2 ± 5.1 kg/m(2)) who participated in a 10-month lifestyle treatment programme were included. The PA duration correlated only with weight change for men (r = -0.69, P = .027 versus r = -0.19, P = .372 for women). Conversely, the PA intensity correlated only with CRF for women (r = 0.61, P = .003 versus r = 0.39, P = .340 for men). PA explained 55.8 and 5.6% of weight change for men and women, respectively, whereas the corresponding explained variances for CRF were 15.6 and 36.7%. We conclude that PA was associated with change in body weight and CRF; however, there was a trend towards a gender specific effect between severely obese men and women.