To Lose Belly Fat: Jogging Beats Resistance Training

Belly fat, as defined by researchers like those at Duke University, is not the blubber that hangs over your belt every time you sit down. Belly fat, also known as visceral fat and liver fat, resides deep within the abdominal cavity and is associated with increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer. It's not ugly, just dangerous. Now comes a group of researchers from  Duke University who claim to have proven that the best way to lose belly fat is aerobic exercise, not resistance training. A Duke news release reports that the researchers followed 196 overweight, sedentary adults (ages 18 to 70) who were randomized to one of three groups: aerobic training; resistance training or a combination of the two, for eight months. The aerobic group performed exercises equivalent to 12 miles of jogging per week at 80-percent maximum heart rate. The resistance group did three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions three times per week. The researchers found that aerobic training burned 67 percent more calories than resistance training, and significantly reduced visceral fat and liver fat, the culprit in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Aerobic exercise also did a better job than resistance training at improving fasting insulin resistance, and reducing liver enzymes and fasting triglyceride levels, all risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. In fact, the researchers noted that resistance training did almost nothing to reduce visceral fat, liver fat, liver enzyme levels or improvements in insulin resistance. The combination of aerobic with resistance training achieved results similar to aerobic training alone. “Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass,” says the study's lead author, exercise physiologist Cris Slentz. “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.”

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