An increasingly prevalent pattern of risk factors has emerged in middle-aged and older adults that includes the presence of type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, overweight or obese weight status with central obesity and very high body fat, low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), low strength, and a low lean-body-mass-to-body-fat ratio. Traditionally, these problems have been approached with a low-fat and low-calorie diet and with lower to moderate intensity activity such as walking. While the treatment has some clear benefits, this approach may no longer be optimal because it does not reflect more recent findings from nutrition and exercise sciences. Specifically, these fields have gained a greater understanding of the metabolic and functional importance of focusing on reducing body fat and central obesity while maintaining or even increasing lean body mass, a quality weight loss, and how to efficiently and effectively increase CRF and strength. Evidence is presented for shifting the treatment paradigm for disease prevention and healthy aging to include the DASH nutrition pattern but with additional protein, higher intensity, brief aerobic training, effortbased, brief resistance training, and structured physical activity. Recent interventions based on social cognitive theory for initiating and then maintaining health behavior changes show the feasibility and efficacy of the approach we are advocating especially within a multiple health behavior change format and the potential for translating the new treatment paradigm into practice.
KEYWORDSDiabetes, Quality weight loss, Treatment paradigm, Multiple health behaviors IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM, USUAL TREATMENT, CHANGING THE TREATMENT PARADIGM A pressing public health problem is the high prevalence of engagement in multiple, poor health behaviors, creating patterns of high risk for morbidity and mortality and contributing to considerable individual and societal financial burden [1,2]. One pattern that is becoming increasingly prevalent is the combination of prediabetes, overweight or obese weight status, central obesity (increased visceral adipose tissue), and low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with gradual loss of lean body mass and strength [3], which further increases the risks for type 2 diabetes (T2D), cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers, disabilities, and premature death [4]. The prevalence of T2D, based on fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1c levels in adults, aged 45-64 years old, is~14 %, and the prevalence of prediabetes for adults >20 years old is~35 % [5]. For adults over 65 years old, the prevalence of T2D is 27 % and the prevalence of prediabetes is~50 % [5]. Overweight, not just obesity weight status, is often comorbid for central obesity (waist circumference (WC) ≥102 cm for men and ≥88 cm for women) [3], which is associated with increased risk of T2D, especially for women [6]. Overweight individuals with large WC's, though at high risk, are often not identified for interventions [6,7]. The normal agerelated loss of lean body mass beginning in m...