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Women tend to accumulate it after menopause. Men put it on
even more easily, since they tend to attract fat to
their
middles, while many women put it on their hips. External
fat around the middle is one sign you may be harboring
hidden
fat, although the only way to tell for sure is to have an
MRI or a CT scan. That's the bad news.
The good news is that moderate exercise can reduce invisible
fat, even if it doesn't appear to be making a difference on
the outside. That means taking the battle of the bulge undercover
could help save your life.
"Regardless of the amount of weight lost, we now know
that exercise reduces hidden intra-abdominal fat, the most
dangerous type of fat," said Dr. Anne McTiernan, a Fred
Hutchinson researcher and lead author of a study on this topic
published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
McTiernan and her colleagues at the University of Washington,
Yale University and the University of Colorado randomly assigned
173 sedentary postmenopausal women to two groups. One group
did regular, moderate exercise for a year, and the other participated
only in a stretching program. Three-quarters of the participants
had enough intra-abdominal fat to put them at risk.
At the end of the year, the group that exercised more vigorously
had reduced intra-abdominal fat by between 3.4 percent and
6.9 percent, while maintaining their calories. Although they
lost an average of just three pounds, it was still enough
to reduce their risk of cancer and other diseases, she said.
"The bottom line is even if you're not seeing changes
from exercising, you are getting the benefits," she said.
"It's never too late to enjoy the health benefits of
exercise." The women in the stretching group, on the
other hand, had a modest increase in intra-abdominal fat.
Bernyce Edwards, 70, who was in the moderate exercise group,
said she's become a fervent believer in the benefits of staying
fit.
After spending years in sedentary work for United Airlines,
she watched the pounds creep on, a little each year.
But her 42-year-old daughter's death from breast cancer spurred
her to participate in breast cancer research.
"I was frustrated and angry," Edwards said. "I
wanted to do whatever I could."
She signed up for the study. Now, more than a year later,
she still does aerobics and lifts weights three times a week
at her local YWCA, and walks the beach at Alki at least once
a week. She's dropped nearly 20 pounds and kept it off.
"I feel so much better," she said. "And it
makes me think more clearly."
She's also pleased it's helping cut her risk of disease and
hopes it will prompt others to stick with their exercise programs.
Having intra-abdominal fat is bad for several reasons. It's
linked to higher cholesterol levels, which increases heart
disease. Intra-abdominal fat also tends to increase insulin
levels, which promotes the growth of certain cancers. For
women, it increases the risk of breast and colon cancer, McTiernan
said. It's unclear yet how the fat affects men's health, since
the study looked only at postmenopausal women.
But the fat is also linked to increased risk of heart disease
and diabetes, diseases that plague men as well.
The findings add one more reason to keep weight under control.
Women, especially, tend to put on a pound or two a year, which
adds up, the researcher said.
"If someone's gaining weight and their pants are getting
tighter, the odds are they have intra-abdominal fat,"
she said. "People with high levels of intra-abdominal
fat may not even know it."
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