Exercise by itself does little to reduce your weight. The most effective way to lose weight involves a combination of cutting calories and moving more. But when it comes to exercise, are there advantages to one type over another?
To get rid of weight around your middle, especially the fat that lies around your organs, is it more effective to strength-train or get aerobically fit by working towards a 5K? That’s the focus of a new eight-month study from Duke University Medical Center* that examined the effects of the different types of exercise—plus a combination of the two, on fat stores that lie beneath the skin as well as those that surround the liver and other organs in the abdominal cavity (visceral fat). This is the type of fat that contributes to diseases such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure etc.
In the study, which also measured liver enzymes and insulin resistance, 196 subjects between the ages of 18 and 70 were randomly placed into one of three exercise groups. A resistance-training group did three sets of eight exercises with 8 to 12 repetitions for three days a week. An aerobic training group jogged approximately 12 miles per week. A third group did a combination of both.
Who lost more belly fat? After eight months, the aerobics group had excellent outcomes in terms of reduced fat in the abdominal area both beneath the skin and surrounding the organs including around the liver, as well as lowered liver enzyme readings and insulin resistance. The resistance-training group had reduced abdominal fat under the skin only and did not have improvements in liver enzymes or insulin resistance measures. The combination group had similar results to the aerobics group but they weren’t statistically significant. Although larger studies are needed to confirm the results, the evidence suggests that aerobic activity—whether jogging, dancing or spinning at a moderate intensity and the equivalent of 12 miles per week—can help minimize that gut that won’t go away.
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