Lose Belly Fat with Jogging or Weight Lifting?

Belly fat is one of the most loathsome and potentially dangerous of all types of body fat. An accumulation of belly fat typically signals the internal fat called “visceral fat” which sits around body organs and prevents them from working correctly. This fat is also dangerous because it increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. In people who are already at risk for one or more of these diseases, belly fat can be especially dangerous.

Belly fat is also a vanity fat because it tends to be the most visually noticeable on most people. There are exercises and diet plans that are supposed to target belly fat but usually without much success. But, now researchers at Duke University Medical Center. have completed a comparison study to determine exactly what type of exercise might be right to get rid of the most belly fat.

In that study, Cris Slentz, PhD., the author of the study published by the American Journal of Physiology, compared the effects of aerobic, resistance training or a combination of the two against one another to find out which was the most effective in ridding the body of the dangerous, visceral fat. That study lasted eight months long and included nearly two hundred women, all of whom were both overweight and sedentary. All of the women, from all age groups, were randomized into one of three groups. All three of the exercise groups were monitored to make sure that they were doing their exercises correctly and with maximum effort for the entire time.

The aerobic group was asked to exercise to a level that was equal to jogging twelve miles per week at 80% of their maximum heart rate. The resistance group did three sets of exercises, working toward eight to twelve reps per set, three times each week.

The study concluded that while the combination of aerobics and resistance training group did have some improvements in some of their labs that were substantially higher than the other solo groups, the numbers for belly fat reduction were better for the aerobics group because that group burned up to 67% more calories per session than did the other groups. However, resistance training did not affect certain numbers, including liver enzymes and elevated insulin levels.

Overall, the combination group fared better in most of their testing, a finding that was echoed by a second study, this one done by Timothy S. Church, MD, MPh, PhD from Louisiana State University. In that study, 262 people from both genders, all diagnosed with Type II diabetes had major health improvements, including better blood glucose levels as well as better blood triglyceride numbers when using the combination of aerobic and resistance training rather than one or the other alone.

Both studies have concluded with pointing out that all aspects of exercise, aerobic, resistance training and flexibility needed to be addressed in well-rounded fitness routine for overall good health.