Dr Zoe Williams discusses visceral fat on This Morning
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Excess visceral fat is strongly associated with “metabolic disturbances”, increasing your risk for cardiovascular disease – the UK’s biggest killer – and type 2 diabetes. Researchers determined to find out the most effective type of exercise to get rid of the harmful visceral fat. A collaboration took place between scientists at Blaise Pascal University, France, and Australian Catholic University, Australia.
Wanting to explore the best way to limit cardiovascular risk, the team recruited 100 participants to be involved in their study.
All participants were between 50 to 70 years of age, who underwent a “diet restriction”.
They were placed into three physical training groups:
- Moderate-resistance, moderate-endurance (re)
- High-resistance, moderate-endurance (Re)
- Moderate-resistance, high-endurance (rE).
Visceral fat levels were tracked throughout 12 months – it’s worth pointing out that 22 participants dropped out so their results weren’t included in the final results.
At week three of the year-long experiment, visceral fat loss was highest in the Re group.
This suggests, at the beginning at least, that high resistance training was highly effective at shifting the unwanted belly fat.
By the end of the experiment, the Re group lost 21.5 percent of their visceral fat levels.
This was closely followed by the “rE” group, who did moderate resistance training, but worked out for a longer amount of time – reducing visceral fat levels by 21.1 percent.
The least most effective workout to lose visceral fat was those who did moderate resistance training and worked out moderately.
“Increased intensity in high-volume training is efficient in improving visceral fat loss,” the researchers noted.
“High-intensity resistance training induced a faster visceral fat loss.
“Thus the potential of resistance training should not be undervalued.”
What is resistance training?
Phil Goulding, a senior personal trainer at Nuffield Health, explained what resistance training is.
“The term refers to any form of exercise where you lift or pull against resistance,” he said.
“This could be using dumbbells, a barbell, bodyweight, machines, kettlebells, powerbands or any other external resistance.”
Not only can resistance training lower body fat, it can decrease the risk of heart disease, decrease blood pressure, and improve cholesterol.
“Improving muscular fitness is very important for enhancing quality of life,” said Goulding.
Moreover, resistance training can help prevent muscle loss and decrease the risk of osteoporosis.
Goulding pointed out that “everyone would benefit from some form of resistance training”.
He added that resistance training should be done twice weekly, on non-consecutive days.
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