Elderly women, but not men, lose visceral fat tissue on resistance training program.

2002 AUG 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - A regimen of resistance training resulted in the loss of abdominal fat tissue in older women, but not in older men, according to a report in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

"Little is known concerning the effects of resistance-exercise training (RT) on older adult's intra-abdominal adipose tissue (IAAT)," commented Gary R. Hunter and associates at the University of Alabama.

To determine the effects of isometric exercises on older adults' strength and the distribution of fat mass loss, Hunter and his collaborators recruited 26 older adults (12 women, 14 men), 61-77 years old, to undergo a 25-week program of exercise. Baseline measurements of intra-abdominal and abdominal subcutaneous fat mass (measured by computer tomography), body composition (measured by densitometry), isometric strength, and the one-repetition maximum ability (1-RM) were compared with measurements obtained after the 25-week resistance training program. The exercise program involved 10 repetitions at 60-80% of maximum ability, done twice 3 days each week.

Increases in strength were comparable for the men and women. Women experienced a 22% increase in isometric strength and 38% in the 1-RM. Men gained 21% and 36%, respectively, in the same categories. Fat-free mass (FFM) increased for both men and women; however, the men gained more FFM than did the women (2.8 kg vs. 1.0 kg, ...