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Pls give me an answer to this problem

by livery » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:35 am
A recent study of people who had successfully lost weight and implemented regular exercise routines in their twenties found that, by the age of forty, most had gained back the weight, stopped exercising regularly, or both. Surprisingly, among the study's subjects who had hired personal trainers to help them lose weight and exercise in their twenties, an even higher percentage had regained the weight or stopped exercising than among subjects who had not hired such trainers. The researchers concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the passage above?

1) Subjects in the study who had hired personal trainers had, on average, more free time to exercise than did those who had not hired such trainers.
2) Some people hire personal trainers for sport-specific training or to rehabilitate injuries, rather than to lose weight or implement a regular exercise program.
3) The average person's metabolism slows significantly between the ages of thirty and forty, making it more difficult for people aged forty or older to avoid weight gain.
4) Many of the personal trainers hired by the people in the study were also dietitians who helped their clients design meal plans.
5) Most people who hire personal trainers do so, at least in part, because they lack sufficient motivation to remain on a diet or exercise regimen by themselves.
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by vk_vinayak » Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:17 am
livery wrote:A recent study of people who had successfully lost weight and implemented regular exercise routines in their twenties found that, by the age of forty, most had gained back the weight, stopped exercising regularly, or both. Surprisingly, among the study's subjects who had hired personal trainers to help them lose weight and exercise in their twenties, an even higher percentage had regained the weight or stopped exercising than among subjects who had not hired such trainers. The researchers concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the passage above?

1) Subjects in the study who had hired personal trainers had, on average, more free time to exercise than did those who had not hired such trainers.
2) Some people hire personal trainers for sport-specific training or to rehabilitate injuries, rather than to lose weight or implement a regular exercise program.
3) The average person's metabolism slows significantly between the ages of thirty and forty, making it more difficult for people aged forty or older to avoid weight gain.
4) Many of the personal trainers hired by the people in the study were also dietitians who helped their clients design meal plans.
5) Most people who hire personal trainers do so, at least in part, because they lack sufficient motivation to remain on a diet or exercise regimen by themselves.
I would go with E.

Argument says that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

The survey is conducted for the people who had lost weight but regained.

So, E says that, for those people who had no motivation, personal-trainers had helped them lose weight and maintain diet. Hence, E weakens the argument.
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by techyrajeev » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:57 pm
Are you looking only for answer to this problem?
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by livery » Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:54 pm
No, I am looking for complete explanation for the correct answer as well as for the incorrect options.
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by confuse mind » Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:16 am
livery wrote:A recent study of people who had successfully lost weight and implemented regular exercise routines in their twenties found that, by the age of forty, most had gained back the weight, stopped exercising regularly, or both. Surprisingly, among the study's subjects who had hired personal trainers to help them lose weight and exercise in their twenties, an even higher percentage had regained the weight or stopped exercising than among subjects who had not hired such trainers. The researchers concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the passage above?

1) Subjects in the study who had hired personal trainers had, on average, more free time to exercise than did those who had not hired such trainers.
2) Some people hire personal trainers for sport-specific training or to rehabilitate injuries, rather than to lose weight or implement a regular exercise program.
3) The average person's metabolism slows significantly between the ages of thirty and forty, making it more difficult for people aged forty or older to avoid weight gain.
4) Many of the personal trainers hired by the people in the study were also dietitians who helped their clients design meal plans.
5) Most people who hire personal trainers do so, at least in part, because they lack sufficient motivation to remain on a diet or exercise regimen by themselves.

IMO - C
I won't like to go with E because it discusses only one part of the conclusion and completely leaves behind the other part, which is 'difficult in continuing with the exercise plan'

because even it gives an alternate explanation for the wight gain and holds true even if the person leaves exercise, and if the trainers helped them with a nice schedule.
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by crisro » Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:40 pm
livery wrote:A recent study of people who had successfully lost weight and implemented regular exercise routines in their twenties found that, by the age of forty, most had gained back the weight, stopped exercising regularly, or both. Surprisingly, among the study's subjects who had hired personal trainers to help them lose weight and exercise in their twenties, an even higher percentage had regained the weight or stopped exercising than among subjects who had not hired such trainers. The researchers concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the passage above?

1) Subjects in the study who had hired personal trainers had, on average, more free time to exercise than did those who had not hired such trainers. Having more free time doesn't make any difference. We have no information what are they doing in their free time.
2) Some people hire personal trainers for sport-specific training or to rehabilitate injuries, rather than to lose weight or implement a regular exercise program.We are concerned only about those trainers hired to help the people lose weight as the author exactly specifies in the paragraph.
3) The average person's metabolism slows significantly between the ages of thirty and forty, making it more difficult for people aged forty or older to avoid weight gain. This has nothing to do with trainers and it affects equally the people with or without trainer.
4) Many of the personal trainers hired by the people in the study were also dietitians who helped their clients design meal plans. We know that the people hired personal trainers to lose weight and exercise, so dieting and designing meal plans might have been part of the lose weight program. This option doesn't provide any new information about how efficient were those trainers.
5) Most people who hire personal trainers do so, at least in part, because they lack sufficient motivation to remain on a diet or exercise regimen by themselves.We are learning that those people who hire personal trainers have less motivation to diet and exercise by themselves than the other people who do not hire trainers, so the problem is not with the trainers but with the trainees . If the trainers are not responsible for the inefficiency of the program the argument has no basis.
The argument of the paragraph is that because the percentage of people who regain weight is higher among those who hired trainer than among those who didn't hire trainer the author concludes that trainers are largely ineffective. So we are looking for the option that weakens this argument.

IMO option 5) is the right answer.
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by shekhar.kataria » Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:50 pm
confused between C and E. However, i would have chosen C.

OA and OE,if you have, please.
Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.--Thomas A. Edison

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by hjafferi » Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:36 pm
IMO E
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by mohan514 » Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:49 am
i too vote for E

OA please
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by ankit0411 » Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:18 am
livery wrote:A recent study of people who had successfully lost weight and implemented regular exercise routines in their twenties found that, by the age of forty, most had gained back the weight, stopped exercising regularly, or both. Surprisingly, among the study's subjects who had hired personal trainers to help them lose weight and exercise in their twenties, an even higher percentage had regained the weight or stopped exercising than among subjects who had not hired such trainers. The researchers concluded not only that remaining on an effective weight management and exercise program is difficult, but also that personal trainers are largely ineffective in helping people to remain on an effective weight management and exercise program.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the passage above?

1) Subjects in the study who had hired personal trainers had, on average, more free time to exercise than did those who had not hired such trainers.
2) Some people hire personal trainers for sport-specific training or to rehabilitate injuries, rather than to lose weight or implement a regular exercise program.
3) The average person's metabolism slows significantly between the ages of thirty and forty, making it more difficult for people aged forty or older to avoid weight gain.
4) Many of the personal trainers hired by the people in the study were also dietitians who helped their clients design meal plans.
5) Most people who hire personal trainers do so, at least in part, because they lack sufficient motivation to remain on a diet or exercise regimen by themselves.
Reached C by POE but the logic to weaken to argument is:

If the metabolism rate is slow between the ages of thirty and forty, it makes it necessary to have a trainer to avoid this weight gain, and hence the role of a trainer/instructor becomes effective in that case.

option E doesn't really address the issue at hand

Thanks,
Ankit
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