Weight loss through nutrition alone decreases bone mineral density, while weight loss with exercise increases it.

“So, um, when you look at data for people who have lost weight purely through nutritional manipulations, i.e. purely through manners of reducing caloric intake. And you can do this a lot of ways, right? You can just directly and generally reduce calories. You can do it through timerestricted feeding. You can do it through dietary restriction meaning restricting various elements within the diet. Those people tend to lose bone mineral density. When you look at people who are doing it in combination with significant exercise, they actually tend to gain bone mineral density.”