TY - JOUR T1 - Physical activity and obesity editorial: is exercise pointless or was it a pointless exercise? JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 969 LP - 970 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2015-095005 VL - 49 IS - 15 AU - Kamal R Mahtani AU - Jim McManus AU - David Nunan Y1 - 2015/08/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/15/969.abstract N2 - In their editorial, Malhotra et al 1 highlighted the important health benefits of physical activity in cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and cancer, but dismissed any benefit for weight loss in obesity. However, the poor use of existing evidence to underpin this dismissal and the resultant press release generated headlines that could send a misleading message to patients and the public.An evidence-based approach to clinical decision-making involves understanding the best type of evidence to use, how to appraise it, and assessing its usefulness in practice. Such an approach determines the risk of bias and ensures decisions are guided by accurate, meaningful evidence. The GRADE guidelines cite expert opinion alone as very low quality evidence, with a high risk of bias.2 Unfortunately, much of the evidence cited by Malhotra and colleagues was based on expert opinion or was not referenced. For example, when excluding a relationship between obesity and physical activity, the evidence cited was an opinion piece by Luke and Cooper,3 which has been criticised for ignoring observational and experimental studies that support a relation between physical activity and obesity. They give no reference for their claim that, according … ER -