The combined effects of exercise and ingestion of a meal replacement in conjunction with a weight loss supplement on body composition and fitness parameters in college-aged men and women.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Anti-Obesity Agents, published as a randomized controlled trial.

This study was performed to evaluate the combined effect of a meal replacement and an alleged weight loss supplement (WLS) on body composition, fitness parameters, and clinical health in moderately overweight college-aged men and women.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 6 men were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, young adults and adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Anti-Obesity Agents study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the men and researchers unaware of who received Anti-Obesity Agents.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Anti-Obesity Agents group a baseline to be compared against.

Body mass, bench press 1 repetition maximum (1RM), leg press 1RM, body composition, V(O2)max, fasting glucose (GLU), and lipid panels were evaluated before (T1) and after (T2) 8 weeks of combined resistance training (RT) and cardiovascular training (CVT).

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anti-Obesity Agents, Body Composition, Diet, Dietary Supplements, Exercise, Lipids and Muscle Strength.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Anti-Obesity Agents in 6 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2011 (Journal of strength and conditioning research), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.