Harvard study on keeping your waistline thin...

Lift more for a smaller waist | Weight training vs. running to shrink abdominal fat

In the battle of the belly, you’d better bring some iron.

That’s the lesson from a new study out of Harvard that found that over the long haul, 20 minutes of daily weight training does more to reduce abdominal fat than the same amount of time doing aerobic workouts.

For the best results, though, combine them. Weight training combined with hitting the treadmill or running yields the best results, researchers say.

“This study underscores the importance of weight training in reducing abdominal obesity,” says Harvard professor Frank Hu, senior author of the study. “To maintain a healthy weight and waistline, it is critical to incorporate weight training with aerobic exercise.”

The study was recently published in the medical journal Obesity.

Researchers examined the physical activity, waist circumference and body weight of 10,500 healthy U.S. men ages 40 and older.

Analysis included a comparison of changes in activity levels over a 12-year period to see which activities had the most effect on the men’s waistlines.

Those who raised the amount of time spent in weight training by 20 minutes a day saw 68 percent less gain in their waistlines than those who upped their workouts by about 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise.

Confirming the obvious, those who spent more time couch surfing, instead of exercising more, got the biggest bulges.

“Because aging is associated with sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass, relying on body weight alone is insufficient for the study of healthy aging,” says Rania Mekary, a nutrition expert at Harvard’s School of Public Health who helped lead the research.

“Engaging in resistance training or, ideally, combining it with aerobic exercise could help older adults lessen abdominal fat while increasing or preserving muscle mass,” she says.

Good article Brian...still prefer running or spinning than any type of weights or resistance training though!!

I guess the idea is to do a little of both....

Wow, great article to post. I thank you for bringing it to peoples attention. I have been a personal trainer for over 12 years and totally  agree strength training is very important and often overlooked by people trying to loose weight or shrink their waist line. When you finish doing cardio your body continues to burn calories for up to 3 hours but when you do strength training your body continues to burn for up to 48-96 hours. Here is a blog/article "Is Strength Training Important for Weight Loss" I wrote which covers many of the same things. Again, great post