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Exercise can help reduce the invisible, fat that affects internal organs and can cause heart disease or diabetes, scientists say.
The type of fat you can measure with tape is not the most dangerous, say researchers. In contrast, visceral internal fat can affect the heart, liver and other organs.
Researchers at the University of Texas (UT), in the southwestern United States, badyzed two types of interventions – lifestyle modification (exercise) and pharmacology (medicine) – in order to determine how best to overcome the fat located at the bottom of the belly.
"Visceral fat can affect local organs or the entire bodily system, and can affect the heart and liver, as well as the abdominal organs," said Ian J Neeland, badistant professor at UT Southwestern.
"When studies use weight or body mbad index as a metric, we do not know if interventions reduce fat in the body, or just on the surface," Neeland said.
For the study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers evaluated changes in visceral fat in 3,602 participants over a 6-month period, as measured by CT or MRI.
Exercise and medications resulted in a reduction in visceral fat, but the reductions were greater per pound of body weight lost with exercise.
"The location and type of fat is important.If you only measure weight or BMI, you can underestimate the health benefits of losing weight," Neeland said.
"Exercise can actually melt visceral fat," he said.
Exercise participants were 65% female, with an average age of 54 years and an average BMI at 31 years of age.
Researchers previously viewed fat as inert storage, but over the years, this vision has evolved and fat is now considered an active organ.
"Some obese people contract heart disease, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome – and others do not," said Neeland.
"Our study suggests that a combination of approaches can help reduce visceral fat and potentially prevent these diseases," he said.
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