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Item #5
Moderate
Exercise Cuts Risk of Disease Even Without Weight Loss
Having
an abundance of fat surrounding the organs has been linked to a
greater incidence of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
A
new study published in The Journal of the American Medical
Association shows how
a group of women who worked out for a year lost an average
of only three pounds more than a group that didn't, the ones who
exercised made sharp reductions in the fat in their midsections,
where it appears to be most dangerous.
What
the researchers call intra-abdominal fat is harder to see than the
padding immediately under the skin, but having an abundance of fat
surrounding the organs has been linked to a greater incidence of
diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
In
the new study, researchers measured the fat levels of 168
sedentary and overweight postmenopausal women.
Half
of the women were required to exercise moderately for 45 minutes a
day, five days a week.
For
the first three months, they worked out in supervised sessions at
a gym three days a week.
For the next nine months, they went to the gym at least
once a week but did the bulk of their workouts at home.
The other half attended stretching classes once a week.
Twelve
months later, the women who worked out — for an average of 37
minutes five times a week — had made the biggest change in their
bodies' composition, losing about 7 percent of their
intra-abdominal fat.
Women
who worked out but not quite as much had significant but smaller
reductions. Those who only stretched were essentially unchanged,
both in weight and body composition.
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