The article by Bailey et al. (2019) investigated how three-step suggestions that were increasingly higher over 24 weeks affected variations in body weight and structure. Reduced physical exercise and body weight occur more frequently during the transition from high school to college than in the overall population. A high-risk group for excessive weight gain is college students. That is partly because many university students are in a crucial transition phase and developing behaviors that may last throughout maturity. This study aimed to assess how three increasingly more excellent step guidelines affected women throughout their first year of college in terms of avoiding weight gain and body fat. The media report doubts widely held beliefs about how walking improves weight reduction. Opposite to popular opinion, Bailey et al. (2019) argue that people should not all be walking 10,000 steps a day. According to Bailey et al. (2019), increasing walking may reduce idle time but does not truly stop weight gain. Contrary to popular belief that walking helps lose weight, the main advantage of the step suggestion is the ability to encourage individuals to lead more active lifestyles.
The Agency (2020) wrote to explore how walking affects the human body while addressing the main misconception that daily walking directly contributes to weight loss, and research has shown that this is not the case. A particular patient group might be interested in this issue since it helps the group gain an understanding of why walking does not contribute to weight loss. The tone that the Agency (2020) writes the article is educative, aiming to make people know there is no such relationship between walking and weight loss. The content is not an advertisement, and or not it is unclear whether the article sponsored the content is not disclosed. However, since the article is not scientific or peer-reviewed, it might not be very objective, leading to shock value. The significant discovery of the article was that walking only saves from a sedentary lifestyle. The most efficient strategy for weight loss does not necessarily exercise alone. The main message a patient might obtain from the media report is that step tracking did not result in maintaining weight or avoiding weight gain; however, it could increase physical activity. The fact that walking more did increase physical activity levels, which may have further psychological and physiological advantages, is a promising discovery.
Bailey et al. (2019) conducted a three-arm randomized trial to address the relationship between body weight and step recommendation. One of the three-step recommendations, which called for 10,000, 12,500, or 15,000 steps per day for 24 weeks, were assigned randomly to each participant (Bailey et al., 2019). The additional exercise session resulting from these steps was 25% (Bailey et al., 2019). The researchers removed no participant for failing to complete the suggested number of steps, even though they were given encouragement and help. The principal scientist randomly assigned each participant’s identifying number at the start of the trial using PC-SAS. The senior researcher withheld the randomized treatment assignment list from the trial staff until the researchers finished the background assessment and the subject number was allocated. The leading investigator announced the intervention allocation after allocating the participant number. All survey respondents were permitted to participate, and the institutional ethics committee authorized the study.
The quantitative research design employed in the study is appropriate since it helps Bailey et al. (2019) to perform proper, focused, fast, objective, and more scientific research. Further, the research approach is critical in this study since it helps the investigators define the issue or establish how they approach the research problem. An alternative study design would have been qualitative research through which Bailey et al. (2019) would have gained the participants’ experiences, knowledge, perception, and attitude on the relationship between the variables. Qualitative research would have been more substantial than the chosen quantitative design since it would have allowed Bailey et al. (2019) to understand the issues of interest linked to the problem. Through that, Bailey et al. (2019) would have a profound approach to how they analyzed the issues affecting the participants relative to the research issue being addressed. The weaknesses of the study are that there was no control group, an unequal attrition and drop-out rate, and the inability to restrict participants to the number of daily steps. There are no ethical issues addressed in the study.
The study’s main finding showed that despite the women taking the recommended steps, they gained weight in their respective groups (Bailey et al., 2019). Further, Bailey et al. (2019) showed that increasing daily steps by over 10,000 positively affects physical mobility patterns but does not stop first-year women from gaining weight. Relative to the research topic, there were no significant weight gains between the groups with no specific fat weight gain difference (Bailey et al., 2019). Setting step targets can help people become more active and spend less time sitting down, which translates to almost an hour of additional activity each day due to the recommended 15,000 steps per day. The reduction in idle time was significant and had advantages that probably went beyond weight control, even if weight gain avoidance was not accomplished (Bailey et al., 2019). The prevention of weight gain during the first year is still a crucial area of study. During this phase of life’s transformation, weight growth speeds up.
Given that physical activity increased gradually with each step prescription and that physical activity boosts energy expenditures and changes the energy budget, the absence of a reduction in gaining weight between step categories was unexpected. The fact that all footsteps were tallied equally regardless of the degree of the action being done is a restriction of employing steps to enhance physical exercise. The researchers thus counted light steps in the same way as necessary steps. Given that the bulk of the overactivity in this study was from light exercise and that there was no change in strenuous exercise, this might account for the lack of differentiation in weight gain across groups. So, one explanation for the failure of differentiation in weight increase across groups might be because the exercise was less strenuous and did not significantly alter the equilibrium state to affect body weight. Another factor can be related to this age group’s typical physical growth.
These articles are similar in terms of collected and processed information. The papers discuss the impact of walking on human life and weight loss. The conclusions are drawn with a single message: walking does not thoughtfully contribute to weight loss but creates conditions for warming up the body. An interesting factor that has been investigated is that when counting the number of steps or the distance traveled, a person is motivated by the visualization of the result and continues his test further. It is also motivating that not one person did not give up when collecting information for research. The prevention of weight gain during the first year of college remains a crucial area of study. Bailey et al. (2019) argue that at this phase of life’s transition, patients might experience weight growth speeds. From a population’s perspective, the study’s findings show that the health sector should change health policy to inform the public that increasing daily habitual steps are insufficient to reach this objective.
Reference
Agency. (2020). Walking 10,000 steps doesn’t help with weight loss. The Star. Web.
Bailey B. W. Bartholomew C. L. Summerhays C. Deru L. Compton S. Tucker L. A. LeCheminant J.
D. & Hicks J. (2019). The impact of step recommendations on body composition and physical activity patterns in college freshman women: a randomized trial. Journal of Obesity, No. 2019 (2019) Pp. 1-8 1.