Health News

March 3, 2006

According to a recent study that focused on intra-abdominal fat, just lifting weights twice a week for one hour can help women battle tummy fat. Intra-abdominal fat is the unhealthiest type of fat because it wraps itself around organs and is linked to heart disease.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and is being presented Friday at an American Heart Association conference in Phoenix.

The waist to hip ratio measurement can help individuals identify their body shape. People who carry excess weight around their waist (apple shaped), as opposed to their hips (pear shaped), have an increased health risk. For women, a healthy waist to hip ratio should be .08 or lower. For men, a healthy waist to hip ratio should be 1 or lower.

The study included 164 overweight and obese Minnesota women ages 24 to 44 divided evenly into two groups. One group participated in a two-year weight-training program. The second group was simply given a brochure recommending exercise of 30 minutes to an hour most days of the week. Both groups were told not to change their diets in a way that might lead to weight changes. Women who did the weight-training for two years had only a 7 percent increase in intra-abdominal fat, compared to a 21 percent increase in the group given exercise advice.

The strength-training group also decreased body fat percentage by almost 4 percent, while the group just given advice remained the same.