Study shows “visceral” belly fat in diabetic women can only be lost through exercise

• When a woman with type 2 diabetes wants to lose her belly, exercise is her best friend.
• Even if she diets perfectly, eating all the right foods in ideal amounts, her waistline may not budge unless she works out.
• Exercise is required to lose excess fat deep in the abdomen, says a new study.
• Why is it so important to lose abdominal fat?
• Researchers have shown that having even a little extra fat in the wrong places can increase the chances of developing disease.
• Fat deep in the abdomen, called visceral fat, poses a greater health risk than fat on other parts of the body, such as the hips.
• Exercise has already been shown to help obese people without diabetes lose visceral fat.
• Now, the verdict is in for overweight diabetic women: Get moving to get rid of this dangerous fat.
• That's why they focused their study on the effects of exercise in obese women with type 2 diabetes.
• Some women were given a low-calorie diet high in healthy monounsaturated fats like olive oil.
• The dieting women also got nutritional consultation, a week's worth of menu ideas, and a weekly meeting for motivation and support.
• Another group was given a supervised aerobic exercise program consisting of walking 50 minutes three times a week, occasionally doing other activities for variety.
• Before and after the study the women got MRI scans to see how much visceral fat they had.
• Only exercise alone or exercise plus dieting reduced visceral fat.
• The researchers say their study demonstrates the importance of exercise in reducing visceral fat in the treatment of women with type 2 diabetes.