September 10, 2024 – Overweight or obese individuals who exercise recurrently over an extended time period could have healthier belly fat than individuals who don’t exercise.
This is the results of a brand new study published Tuesday within the Journal Natural metabolism. The researchers defined regular, long-term training as a minimum of 4 times every week over a period of a minimum of two years.
“Our results show that regular exercise over several months to years is not only a means of burning calories, but also appears to alter your fat tissue in a way that allows you to store your body fat more healthily when you actually gain weight – which is the case for almost everyone as we get older,” said researcher Jeffrey Horowitz, PhD, professor of exercise science on the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology, in a opinion.
The study was small, involving only 32 adults who were obese or chubby, half of whom exercised recurrently. The average body mass index of study participants was about 30, which is the baseline for obesity. (Body mass index is a calculation of height and weight.) People in each group were matched based on aspects equivalent to gender, weight, and body fat mass. Their ages ranged from 25 to 37 years.
The researchers took samples of the topics' abdominal fat tissue directly under the skin and located different structural and biological characteristics.
The exercisers' tissue had a greater capability to store fat slightly below the skin on the abdomen (the tissue you may pinch along with your fingers), and this tissue functioned in a different way than the non-exercisers' tissue. The tissue samples from the exerciser group tended to have more blood vessels and helpful proteins, and differences that meant a lower risk of inflammation and fewer collagen, which may affect metabolism.
The findings are necessary because where fat is stored within the body can have different health effects. Fat stored slightly below the skin, in what’s generally known as subcutaneous fat, has less potential for negative health effects than when the body stores fat deeper, equivalent to around and even in organs. Such potentially toxic fat is known as visceral fat and is linked to heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
“This means that when weight is gained, the excess fat is stored in a 'healthier' area under the skin rather than in the fatty tissue around the organs (visceral fat) or in a collection of fat in the organs themselves, such as the liver or heart,” Horowitz said.