Burn off Belly Fat with Aerobics

Every week at the gym where I teach, someone will come up to me and ask me what they should do to get rid of their muffin top.

As a fitness instructor, I believe there is no magic to weight loss. It’s exactly what most health professionals preach: eat healthy foods, exercise regularly and increase your muscle mass by performing strength training exercises.

But if you’re looking to eliminate true abdominal fat – the kind that surrounds internal organs deep within the abdominal cavity – then your best bet is aerobic exercise, according to a study conducted by Duke University Medical Center. The study, published in the American Journal of Physiology, compared the results of aerobic exercise to resistance training and the combination of both.

Researchers focused on how those activities reduced the amount of visceral fat, which has been linked to an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, according to a Duke University news release. They followed 196 overweight adults who were put into three groups: aerobic training, resistance training or a combination of both.

“When it comes to increased health risks, where fat is deposited in the body is more important than how much fat you have,” said Cris Slentz, lead author of the study and Duke exercise physiologist. “Our study sought to identify the most effective form of exercise to get rid of that unhealthy fat.”

The aerobic group in the study jogged 12 miles every week attaining 80 percent of their maximum heart rate.Those in the resistance training group performed three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions three times per week.

After eight months, researchers found that aerobic exercise significantly reduced visceral and liver fat. It also had the strongest impact on known risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.

“Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass,” Slentz said. “But if you are overweight, which two-thirds of the population is, and you want to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the better choice because it burns more calories.”

Aerobic exercise burned 67 percent more calories compared to resistance training in the study.

Alice Warchol is a fitness instructor and freelance health writer.

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