There are two kinds of belly fat: the subcutaneous kind, which lies just under the skin and is noticeable (and possibly annoying to us), but it is not any more dangerous than any other fat found on our body. Then there is the visceral kind, which is harmful because it comes in close contact with vital organs. Research has shown that visceral fat in the abdomen is directly associated with a higher risk of mortality in men.
As little as 80 minutes per week of aerobic exercise or weight training prevents the return of visceral fat for a year after losing weight, according to a new study from the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). The study will appear in a future edition of the journal Obesity.
In the study, a group of European American and African American men and women were placed in three groups: aerobic exercise, resistance training, or no exercise. All were placed on a diet, restricting calories to 800 per day, and all lost an average of 24 pounds. The participants’ total fat, abdominal subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat were measured.
For the next year, participants were asked to continue exercising for 40 minutes a session twice a week. One year later, they were divided into five groups: those who kept exercising, those who stopped, those who kept on doing weight training, those who stopped, and those who never exercised.
"What we found was that those who continued exercising, despite modest weight regains, regained zero percent visceral fat a year after they lost the weight," UAB exercise physiologist Gary Hunter, Ph.D, said. "But those who stopped exercising, and those who weren't put on any exercise regimen at all, averaged about a 33 percent increase in visceral fat. Interestingly, the results were similar for both races, meaning exercise is equally effective for European Americans and African Americans.
Hunter also noted that, “Because other studies have reported that much longer training durations of 60 minutes a day are necessary to prevent weight regain, it's not too surprising that weight regain was not totally prevented in this study. It's encouraging, however, that this relatively small amount of exercise was sufficient to prevent visceral fat gain."
