The Slimming Solution
Experts say that the best way to stop waist expansion is through regular exercise. "A modest amount of exercise--30 minutes of walking five or six days a week--will prevent an increase in abdominal fat and in waist size," says Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke University Medical Center. A study last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that people who engage in this level of moderate exercise live as much as a year and a half longer than those who don't. More vigorous workouts can add as much as four years of life.
Slentz oversees clinical trials using exercise to reduce cardiovascular disease and other risks resulting from visceral fat. In one study, 175 overweight, sedentary men and women with health problems associated with waist size, such as unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels, were assigned to four exercise groups. One did moderate, low-intensity workouts on treadmills, stationary bikes, or elliptical trainers (equivalent to walking 12 miles a week); the second, moderate, high-intensity workouts (jogging 12 miles per week); the third, high, vigorous intensity (jogging 20 miles per week); and the fourth, no exercise (the control group). Participants were told not to change their diets. At the end of eight months, both moderate-exercise groups had prevented increases in waist size and visceral-fat gain. The high-intensity group lost nearly 7 percent of visceral fat. But the control group, the nonexercisers, experienced an 8.6 percent gain in visceral fat in only six months.
Of course, eating a little less fat helps, particularly less saturated fat, and more fiber, says Philadelphia internist Marie Savard, author of a new book, Apple and Pears: The Body Shape Solution for Weight Loss and Wellness. In her book, Savard suggests that most adults aim to lose 2 inches from their waists, and she also offers other tips for waist reduction.
This story appears in the November 28, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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