I am a physician-scientist with board certification in geriatrics and endocrinology. The overall goal of my research program is to define strategies to improve the physical capacity of obese older adults and prevent their loss of independence. I have considerable experience in lifestyle therapy to reverse frailty in obese older adults. As summarized in the American Society of Nutrition and Obesity Society position statement, in which I was the lead author, obesity in older adults is a major public health problem because it exacerbates the agerelated decline in physical function and causes frailty. I was the first to report that frailty is, in fact, common in obese community-living older men and women. Although weight loss may improve physical function, it may also induce loss of muscle and bone mass. Accordingly, I have been designing lifestyle interventions (weight loss + various exercises) to maximally improve physical function while preserving muscle and bone mass in obese older adults. I have completed a number of randomized controlled trials providing preliminary evidence that lifestyle therapy can reverse frailty in obese older adults. My work has been recognized with the best paper award on “Research on Geriatric Syndromes” from the American Geriatrics Society, and I am a frequent invited speaker on the clinical approach to obese older adults. Based on previous work, the current standard exercise prescription (combined aerobic/resistance training) for older adults does not appear to prevent weightloss induced muscle and bone mass (but only attenuate it) likely as a result of interference between the specific adaptations to different exercises.
Accordingly, the current study, which directly compares (head-head comparison) the potential of resistance, aerobic, and combined resistance/exercise to improve physical function and reverse frailty in obese older adults is a progression of my previous work. The study is highly interdisciplinary, clinical, and translational with an immediate/direct application to the clinical care of the growing number of obese older adults characterized by sarcopenic obesity and frailty. Overall, my track record and expertise in the field of lifestyle therapy of older adults places me in an exceptional position to lead this important clinical investigation.
