In overweight or obese people, this way of eating, combined with regular sporting activity and calorie restriction, would reduce their abdominal fat while helping them preserve their muscle mass.
- Following a Mediterranean diet, exercising regularly, and reducing calories led to a decrease in abdominal fat in adults who were overweight, obese, and metabolic syndrome.
- This healthy lifestyle also helped them preserve their muscle mass.
- “These efforts seem to be paying off after three years.”
“Does a lifestyle weight loss intervention affect changes in body composition?” This is the question that Spanish scientists recently asked themselves. To find out, they carried out a study, the results of which were published in the journal JAMA Network Open. As part of the work, researchers followed 1,521 people who were overweight, suffering from obesity and metabolic syndrome, a group of disorders that signal an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
A reduction in abdominal fat in overweight or obese patients
For three years, a group of patients followed a Mediterranean diet but also limited their consumption of processed foods, meats, butter, added sugar and ate more whole grains. However, the recommendations did not stop at diet. They were also encouraged to gradually increase their physical activity, with a goal of walking at least 45 minutes a day, six days a week, as well as doing exercises to improve their strength. A second group of people followed a Mediterranean diet without calorie restriction or changes in physical activity.
According to the results, volunteers who lost calories and exercised regularly while following a Mediterranean diet reported a decrease in abdominal and total fat. In contrast, adults in the second group saw no change in abdominal fat. According to the team, members of both groups gained some lean muscle mass, but people who exercised and adhered to a calorie restriction lost more fat than muscle.
Sport, diet: the “efforts seem to bear fruit after three years”
“If you eat a high-quality diet, exercise, and reduce calories, you will lose more body fat, especially the deeper, more dangerous fat around the abdominal area, around your organs, and preserve more of muscles. These efforts seem to be bearing fruit after three years”, said Cewin Chao, director of clinical nutrition services at Montefiore Health System in New York, in a statement.