Aerobics Beat Resistance Exercise in Cutting Belly Fat

It’s a recurring question – should one do aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or both?  Now a comparative study has been reported in the American Journal of Physiology that has examined results from an 8-month study by Duke University researchers.

 

Almost 200 overweight sedentary adults aged 18 to 70 were randomly allocated to one of 3 groups – aerobic training, resistance training, or a combination of both.  For aerobics, exercises equivalent to 12 miles a week of jogging, at 80% of maximum heart rate, were prescribed. The resistance group had to do 3 sets of an exercise (8-12 repetitions per set) of 8 exercises, 3 days a week.  The combination group were required to do the same aerobic plus resistance exercises.  Before and after measurements made included intra-abdominal and liver fat (via computed tomography, or CT), plasma liver enzymes, and insulin resistance.

 

In the aerobics group there were significant reductions in intra-abdominal and liver fat, one liver enzyme (serum alanine aminotransferase), insulin resistance, and both total and subcutaneous abdominal fat.  With resistance exercises alone there was a decrease in subcutaneous abdominal fat, but no other significant changes.  And with the combination regime the effects were indistinguishable from those for the aerobics group.

  

IThese findings strongly suggest that aerobic exercise is the way to go to losing that obstinate intra-abdominal or belly fat, which is known to be a serious risk factor for a variety of problems.  Some critics have claimed that the aerobic exercisers in  this study expended a lot more energy than the resistance exercisers, but the exercise physiologist who was the lead author of the study has said that previous work has shown that similar results could be obtained with a more moderate exercise program.    

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