Weight Lifting Helps Reduce Abdominal Body Fat Compared to other Unsupervised Exercise Programs - No Diet Change only Weight Training

March 3rd 2006

Weight Lifting To Reduce Fat

Lifting weights just twice a week for an hour will help women stop the buildup of abdominal fat. The study involved 164 overweight women ages 24 to 44, and was presented at the American Heart Association conference in Phoenix.

The women were broken up in to two groups. One group participated in a two-year weight-training program. The other group was given a simple brochure that recommended exercise of 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week. Both groups were told not to change their diets in a way that would lead to weight loss.

Women who did the weight training for two years, only had a seven percent increase in intra-abdominal fat. The other group that was given only exercise advice had a 21 percent increase. According to a KTEN NBC news story, “The strength-training group also decreased body fat percentage by almost four percent, while the group just given advice remained the same”.

The study focused on intra-abdominal fat. This is the deep fat that wraps itself around organs. ABC News has reported that this fat is the “most unhealthy because it's linked with heart disease.” Dr. Tracy Stevens said “It's the apple-shaped person I'm most worried about." They have more central fat that was “laid down in the arteries.” Stevens was involved in the study and is a cardiologist who directs the women's heart center at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City.

According to the ABC repot, “Researchers reported only marginal effects from the training on total fat mass and the fat you can pinch under the skin.”