Published: May 05, 2008 05:48 pm            

HEALTH: Action is louder than weight

Exercise can shrink your waistline and reduce the belly fat shown in recent studies to be so toxic, even if you don’t lose much weight.

That is the conclusion reached by exercise expert Timothy Church and colleagues in a new book, “Move Yourself: The Cooper Clinic Medical Director’s Guide to All the Healing Benefits of Exercise (Even a Little).

”You can lose a lot of waist without losing a lot of weight,“ says Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge and former medical director of the Cooper Institute in Dallas.

That’s important because belly fat, also called visceral or intra-abdominal fat, is considered particularly dangerous, he says. Research has indicated that people with too much fat in their midsection are at greater risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

Walking the weight off

Church and his co-authors - Tedd Mitchell, medical director at the Cooper Clinic, and health writer Martin Zucker - reviewed research conducted at the Cooper Institute. The institute focuses on research into physical activity and health, and the clinic offers consultation and treatment.

In one study, 464 postmenopausal women were directed to do different amounts of exercise, most of it walking. The four subgroups were sedentary or exercised about 73, 135 or 193 minutes a week. The women who were active lost 1 to 2 inches around their middles, even if they didn’t lose much weight. They noticed that their pants fit better, Church says.

Other research has yielded similar findings. Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that men and women who adhere to an exercise program for a year - about 45 to 60 minutes a day of walking, five to six days a week - had significant decreases in total body fat and belly fat.

The exercisers who did the most - 60 minutes, six days a week - decreased their intra-abdominal fat by 10 percent, says Anne McTiernan, an internist and director of the Prevention Center at Fred Hutchinson.

Regular exercisers should realize that even ”if they don’t see big changes on the scales or in their measurements, they are still getting big health benefits,“ McTiernan says. ”We saw a decrease in hormones and other factors that contribute to cancer.“

Fat cells in the abdomen secrete chemicals that play a role in a number of diseases, Church says. ”This deep visceral fat in the belly produces six times more bad chemicals than subcutaneous fat, the stuff you can pinch right under your skin.

“Plus, the plumbing of visceral fat drains directly to the liver, where these chemicals interfere with the liver’s ability to metabolize blood sugar and cholesterol.”

Danger at 35 or 40 inches

Men have too much fat around their middle if their waist is 40 inches or more. For women, it’s 35 inches or more, Church says.

Besides reducing belly fat, physical activity lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and the risk of diabetes and cancer. It reduces depression and anxiety, and it improves bone and joint health, sex drive, sleep and memory, he says.

But Church notes that fewer than 25 percent of Americans meet the minimum guidelines of being moderately active for 30 minutes five or more days a week, estimates show.

“The average American doesn’t understand that other than not smoking, exercise is the most important thing you can do for your health,” Church says. “They think exercising is a health suggestion on par with leaving mayonnaise off their sandwich.”

He highly recommends wearing a step counter and keeping a physical activity log, especially at the beginning of an exercise program, because these tools help quantify current exercise levels and identify opportunities for activity throughout the day.

Church is always looking for ways to do more. He used to train for Ironman triathlons, but now that he has children, 3 and 5 years old, he jogs for 30 to 35 minutes two to three days during the week. On weekends, he and his wife put their kids in a jogger and go out for fast walk/jog for an hour or more. And they plan active weekends, such as walking around the zoo for an afternoon.

“The bottom line is that most people do not appreciate that exercising, even a little, is the quick fix that they are looking for to improve their health and quality of life.”



HOW PHYSICALLY ACTIVE ARE YOU IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?

This quiz, adapted from “Move Yourself,” will help you determine whether you lead an inactive life. Answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions:

* Do you have a job in which you spend most of the day at a desk?

* When you get home from school or work, do you eat supper in front of the TV?

* Do you reserve your evenings for watching TV or a movie?

* Do your weekend plans usually consist largely of sedentary activities, such as eating, drinking and sitting around?

* If you have a dog, does someone else routinely walk the dog?

* Do you have someone else do your house or yard work?

* When you walk into a two- or three-story building, do you take the elevator to go to a higher floor?

* Does walking a block or going up a flight of stairs leave you out of breath?

* Are you unlikely to get 20 to 30 minutes of exercise a day on most days of the week?

* Do you rarely set aside time to exercise?

Scoring

If you answered “yes” to seven or more of the questions, you are probably leading a super-inactive life. You need to change your ways.

If you answered “yes” to four to six questions, you could use more activity in your daily life.

If you answered “yes” to three questions or fewer, you are probably doing pretty well, but try tracking your steps to make sure.

Count your steps

Just because you lead a busy life, it doesn’t mean you’re active. For the real test of your physical activity, get a pedometer. Clip it to your waistband and wear it from the time you get out of bed in the morning until the time you go to bed at night. Make a note of the steps you’ve walked. Keep track for two or three days. Then use these numbers to figure out where you are:

Fewer than 4,500 steps a day means you’re very sedentary. 4,500-5,500 steps a day: You’re sedentary. 5,500 to 7,500:You’re headed in the right direction but need to step it up. 8,500 and up: You’re active. Stick with it.

If your goal is to lose weight, you probably need to work up to 12,000 or more steps a day.

To increase your steps

Take 100 steps around your office or home about every hour. Program your computer to remind you when it’s time to take a break.

At the office, don’t e-mail or call anyone within 400 feet of you. Instead, walk to that person and give him the message or information.

Take the long way to the restroom.

Take a couple of quick laps around the mall before you start shopping.

        

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