Why Weight training is Impt. for Women's weight loss

[Guest guest]

(If you're able to do it - but even if not, ANY light weight

training, even with hand-weights only, is better than none) Sandy R

Study: Lifting Weights Attacks Belly Fat By JAMIE STENGLE

DALLAS - By just lifting weights twice a week for an hour, women can

battle the buildup of tummy fat that often takes hold with aging, a

new study suggests. And they didn't even diet.

The study focused on intra-abdominal fat, the deep fat that wraps

itself around organs and is the most unhealthy because it's linked

with heart disease.

" One of the most common complaints in women, especially as we

continue to age, especially as we go through menopause, the No. 1

complaint is abdominal growth, " said Dr. s, a

cardiologist who directs the women's heart center at St. Luke's

Hospital in Kansas City.

" It's the apple-shaped person I'm most worried about, " said s,

who was not involved in the study. " The more central the fat, the

more it's laid down in the arteries. "

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and is

being presented Friday at an American Heart Association

conference in Phoenix.

In it, 164 overweight and obese Minnesota women ages 24 to 44 were

divided evenly into two groups. One group participated in a two-year

weight-training program and the other was simply given a brochure

recommending exercise of 30 minutes to an hour most days of the week.

Both groups were told not to change their diets in a way that might

lead to weight changes.

Women who did the weight-training for two years had only a 7 percent

increase in intra-abdominal fat, compared to a 21 percent increase in

the group given exercise advice.

The strength-training group also decreased body fat percentage by

almost 4 percent, while the group just given advice remained the same.

" I think we need to provide people with multiple possibilities,

multiple roads to the same end. If this is what you're willing to do,

I'll tell you what you can get out of it, " said the lead author of

the study, Schmitz, an epidemiologist at the school of

medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers reported only marginal effects from the training on total

fat mass and the fat you can pinch under the skin.

Using both free weights and machines, the women in the strength-

training group worked out for about an hour and were encouraged to

gradually increase the weights they lifted.

" This is not a program you could do in your home, unless you can

afford to have a full gym in your basement, " Schmitz said.

The women, who completed 70 percent of the advised exercise

throughout the study, were in supervised strengthening classes for 16

weeks.

Schmitz said the focus was on chest, back, shoulders, biceps,

triceps, lower back, buttocks and thighs. She noted that adding

muscle mass can help overweight women move faster so they burn more

calories.

Dr. Rita F. Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California

San Francisco, pointed out that since muscle burns more calories than

fat, increasing muscle mass means losing more calories.

***** " Certainly, any kind of exercise is better than not doing

anything, " Redberg said. But for " maximal benefit, cardio with weight

training will get a lot more bang for your buck. " *****

" I think exercise is the fountain of youth, " she said. " If it was a

pill, everyone would be taking it. "