Exercise significantly helps in reducing abdominal fat cells

If you are thinking of reducing the size of your abdominal fat cells, which are a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, don't just rely on dieting, instead add exercise to the process, a recent study done by North Carolina researchers, advises.

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center reveal in their five-year study that exercise should be added to any effort to reduce abdominal fat.

"The message is very clear," said Tongjian You, Ph.D., instructor in geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author. "Exercise is important to reducing the size of these cells, and may one day be part of a prescription for treating the health complications associated with abdominal fat," added You.

The study, which is published in the August issue of the International Journal of Obesity, and the results from 45 obese, middle-age women with excess abdominal fat are part of an ongoing study of up to 125 women. In the study, the women with abdominal fat had a deficit of 2,800 calories a week, either through dieting or a combination of dieting and exercise.

All groups shed their fat mass and body weight, but the diet-alone group had no changes in abdominal fat cell size, while the exercise groups had reduced of about 18 percent in the size of their abdominal fat cells.

Abdominal fat is linked with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that multiplies the risk for heart disease and diabetes. The syndrome is identified when somebody has at least three of the following: ‘abdominal obesity’, ‘high triglycerides’, ‘low levels of high-density lipoprotein ("good") cholesterol’, ‘high blood pressure’ and ‘increased levels of sugar in the blood’.

It is widely known that overall increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat is a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease. Though, not all obese people develop these diseases, but a few obese people who have more abdominal fat (an apple shape) are certainly at a higher risk than people who store excess fat in their hips and thighs (a pear shape).

The recent study examined a lesser-known risk factor for the syndrome that is the size of fat cells just under the surface of the skin, known as subcutaneous fat.

"The size of these fat cells predicts type 2 diabetes, independent of whether the patient is obese," said You adding "...considering the important role of abdominal fat cell size in predicting diabetes and heart disease, our study does indicate that addition of exercise to dietary weight loss is more beneficial than weight loss alone."