Question

"Want to Lose More Fat? Skip Breakfast Before Workout" (The Tribune, June 4,2010 ) is the headline of a newspaper article describing a study comparing men who did endurance training without eating before training and men who ate before training. Twenty men were assigned at random to one of two 6-week diet and exercise programs. Both groups followed a similar diet and performed the same daily morning exercise routine. Men in one group did the exercise routine prior to eating, and those in the other group ate first and then exercised. The resulting data supported the claim that those who do not eat prior to exercising burn a higher proportion of fat than those who eat before exercising. Is the inference made one that involves estimation or one that involves hypothesis testing?

Short answer

The inference made involves hypothesis testing.

Step-by-step solution

Understanding the Exercise

Before diving into the solution, it's crucial to understand the essence of the task. The study described found that men who did not eat before they exercised burned more fat than those who ate prior. The task now is to decide whether this conclusion is a result of estimation or hypothesis testing.

Discussing Estimation and Hypothesis Testing

Estimation is usually used to describe a population parameter based on sample data. Hypothesis testing, on the other hand, is used to make a decision about a population based on a sample. Here, a decision is made about whether the food intake of the exercising men has an effect on the amount of fat they burn.

Determining the Practice

Given the details of the study, it's about making a decision (those who do not eat prior to exercising burn a higher proportion of fat than those who eat before exercising). Therefore, it's a case of hypothesis testing, not estimation.