Weight Training May be Best Exercise for Reducing Abdominal Fat

Abdominal fat is the most dangerous kind of fat and is also the hardest to lose. A recent study suggests that doing 20 minutes of weight training every day may lower the increase of age-related abdominal fat in men better than aerobic exercise.

Participants in the study included 10,500 healthy men age 40 and over with a wide range of BMI. All of them took part in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study between 1996 and 2008. The researchers studied the participants’ physical activity, waist circumference and body weight. They also looked at the changes in their physical activity over the 12-year study period.

They found that the participants who increased their weight training by 20 minutes per day had less gain in their waistline when compared with men who increased their aerobic exercise, stair climbing, or yard work by the same amount of time. On the other end of the spectrum, the men who increased their amount of sedentary activities, such as watching television, had a larger gain in their waistlines.

The researchers also found that the optimal results were seen when weight training was combined with aerobic exercise.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health conducted the study. It was published online ahead of print on December 19, 2014, in the journal Obesity.

Abdominal fat increases the risk of a number of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Abdominal fat is also a key indicator of metabolic syndrome. Exercise is the best way to reduce abdominal fat.