There was no evidence for a relationship between intervention effectiveness and mode of delivery or number of intervention contacts ; however , interventions which involved individually tailoring with personalized activity goals or provision of information about local opportunities in the environment may be more effective .
Conclusions Interventions in adults aged 55 to 70 years led to long term improvements in physical activity at 12 months ; however , maintenance beyond this is unclear .
Identified physical activity improvements are likely to have substantial health benefits in reducing the risk of age-related illnesses .
Background Retirement represents a major transitional life stage in middle to older age .
Changes in physical activity typically accompany this transition , which has significant consequences for health and well-being .
The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for the effect of interventions to promote physical activity in adults aged 55 to 70 years , focusing on studies that reported long-term effectiveness .
Influence of weekend lifestyle patterns on body weight.
OBJECTIVE To determine whether alterations in diet and /or activity patterns during weekends contribute to weight gain or hinder weight loss . METHODS AND PROCEDURES R and omized , controlled trial comparing 1 year of caloric restriction ( CR ) with 1 year of daily exercise ( EX ) . Subjects included 48 healthy adults ( 30F , 18 M ) aged 50 - 60 years with BMI 23.5 - 29.9 kg/m(2 ) . Body weight was measured on 7 consecutive mornings for a total of 165 weeks at baseline and 437 weeks during the 1-year interventions . Daily weight changes were calculated for weekends ( Friday to Monday ) and weekdays ( Monday to Friday ) . Daily energy intake was estimated using food diaries ;  daily physical activity was measured using accelerometers . Both measures were vali date d against doubly labeled water ( DLW ) . RESULTS At baseline , participants consistently gained weight on weekend days ( + 0.06 + /- 0.03 kg/day , ( mean + /- s.e . ) , P = 0.02 ) , but not on weekdays ( -0.02 + /- 0.02 kg/day , P = 0.18 ) . This was attributable to higher dietary intake on Saturdays and lower physical activity on Sundays relative to weekdays ( both P < 0.05 ) . During the interventions , both CR and EX participants were in negative energy balance on weekdays ( P < 0.005 ) . On weekends , however , CR participants stopped losing weight , and EX participants gained weight ( + 0.08 + /- 0.03 kg/day , P < 0.0001 ) due to higher dietary intakes on weekends . This helps to explain the slower-than-expected rate of weight loss during the interventions . DISCUSSION Alterations in lifestyle behaviors on weekends contribute to weight gain or cessation of weight loss on weekends . These results provide one explanation for the relatively slow rates of weight loss observed in many studies , and the difficulty with maintaining significant weight loss
There was no evidence for a relationship between intervention effectiveness and mode of delivery or number of intervention contacts ; however , interventions which involved individually tailoring with personalized activity goals or provision of information about local opportunities in the environment may be more effective .
Conclusions Interventions in adults aged 55 to 70 years led to long term improvements in physical activity at 12 months ; however , maintenance beyond this is unclear .
Identified physical activity improvements are likely to have substantial health benefits in reducing the risk of age-related illnesses .
Background Retirement represents a major transitional life stage in middle to older age .
Changes in physical activity typically accompany this transition , which has significant consequences for health and well-being .
The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the evidence for the effect of interventions to promote physical activity in adults aged 55 to 70 years , focusing on studies that reported long-term effectiveness .