September 10, 2024 – Overweight or obese individuals who exercise usually over an extended time frame can have healthier belly fat in comparison with individuals who don't exercise.
This emerges from the outcomes of a latest study published Tuesday within the Journal Natural metabolism. The researchers defined regular, long-term exercise as not less than 4 times per week for not less than two years.
“Our results suggest that regular exercise over several months to years is not only a means of burning calories, but also changes your adipose tissue in a way that allows you to store your body fat in a healthier way when you experience some weight gain – as almost everyone does as we get older,” said researcher Jeffrey Horowitz, PhD, a professor of exercise science on the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology, in a opinion.
The study was small, including only 32 adults who were obese or chubby, half of whom exercised usually. The average body mass index of study participants was around 30, which is the baseline for an individual to be obese. (Body mass index is a calculation of height and weight.) People in each group were assigned based on aspects corresponding to gender, weight and body fat mass. They were between 25 and 37 years old.
The researchers took samples of individuals's abdominal fat tissue just below the skin and located various structural and biological characteristics.
The tissues of athletes had a greater capability to store fat just below the skin on the abdomen (the sort you may pinch along with your fingers), and this tissue functioned in another way than the tissues of non-athletes. The exercise group's tissue samples tended to have more blood vessels and useful proteins, and differences that meant a lower risk of inflammation and fewer of the form of collagen that may affect metabolism.
The findings are essential since the storage of fat within the body can have different effects on health. Fat stored just below the skin, in what’s referred to as subcutaneous fat, has less potential for negative health effects than if the body stores fat deeper, corresponding to near and even inside organs. Such potentially toxic fat known as visceral fat and has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
“This means that when you gain weight, the excess fat is stored in a 'healthier' way in that area under the skin, rather than in the fatty tissue around the organs (visceral fat) or in a fat accumulation on the organs themselves, such as the liver or heart,” Horowitz said .