Why you can lose fat and still not look any better in the mirror...
Japanese researchers have shown that you lose fat from different parts
of your body, depending on whether you lose weight with exercise or diet.
Lose fat
Publishing their findings in Medicine and Science in Sports &
Exercise, the research team showed that dieting leads to a greater
reduction in visceral (pronounced viss-er-al) fat - the fat that protects
your internal organs.
Exercise, on the other hand, has a greater impact on subcutaneous (pronounced
sub-cue-tain-ee-us) fat. Subcutaneous fat is stored just under your skin,
and has the biggest impact on the way you look. The minor effect of dieting
on subcutaneous fat could explain why dieters can lose a lot of weight,
but remain unhappy with the way they look.
The women in this study took part in a 13-week exercise and diet program.
One group followed a low calorie diet, combined with 1-2 days per week
of exercise. Group two made no change to their diet, but exercised 3-4
days each week.
Although both groups lost roughly the same amount of fat, the women who
exercised for 3-4 days each week lost more subcutaneous fat than those
who exercised only 1-2 days weekly.
• In the group who exercised more frequently, 6 of every
10 pounds of fat lost came from subcutaneous fat.
• In the group who exercised less frequently, less than
3 of every 10 pounds of fat lost came from subcutaneous fat.
When the results of both groups were analyzed, the researchers found
a link between exercise frequency and the loss of subcutaneous fat. In
other words, the more often you exercise, the more subcutaneous fat you'll
lose. The minor effect of dieting on subcutaneous fat could explain why
dieters can lose a lot of weight, but remain unhappy with their appearance.
In short, if you really want to look good naked, dieting alone isn't
enough - you'll have to exercise!
Reference
Abe, T., Kawakami, Y., Sugita, M., & Fukunaga, T. (1997).
Relationship between training frequency and subcutaneous and visceral
fat in women. Medicine
and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, 1549-1553
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