People age-that's a reality. But along with age comes the many different body changes that we have to learn to cope and adapt. One of these is the weight creep.
Studies have already shown that the more you age, the more it's difficult to lose the unwanted weight. The reduced production of certain hormones and the slowdown of the metabolism are just two of the many reasons why. In fact, a person can gain about 2 pounds every 4 years even if he or she tries to live a very active lifestyle.
But that doesn't have to mean you'll surrender to fatness. Many have also succeeded in maintaining an excellent body frame with a very small amount of body fat through proper diet and exercise.
Exercises, however, are not created equal. While you need cardio in order to increase your endurance, it's weight training that can help you lose a good amount of fat, especially that around the belly area.
A team of Harvard School researchers looked into the health and fitness information of more than 10,000 healthy men over a period of 12 years. They discovered that those who increased their intensity and frequency in weight training experienced less weight creep especially around the abdominal area than those who increase their cardio.
Building muscle mass is incredibly important as you age. You tend to lose muscle mass and at a much faster rate if you don't work out. But then, muscles are the ones that burn more calories than fat.
The study is also significant since it focuses on the abdominal or the visceral fat. Also referred to as the beer gut or the beer belly, this type of fat is different from all the others. It is not subcutaneous or the one that builds up underneath the skin. It's active, which means it seems to secrete its own hormones, which can then disrupt the way our regular hormones function. For this reason, the fat is often attributed to an increased risk in heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
