HPC-UK Bitesize (Fat Loss): Forging a Lean Body with Iron

Intra-abdominal obesity (visceral fat) is an important risk factor for low-grade inflammation, which is associated with increased risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease as well as most prevalent disease states.

Generally, recommendations to treat or prevent overweight and obesity via physical activity have focused on aerobic endurance training, as it is was once thought that aerobic training was associated with much greater energy expenditure during the exercise session than resistance training. This vestigial thought process of the last century is now changing in part to our better understanding and ability to measure less accessible workings in the body.

The metabolic consequences of reduced muscle mass that accompanies normal ageing and/or decreased physical activity is currently one of the key ideas thought to lead to a higher prevalence of metabolic disorders.

Because evidence suggests that resistance training promotes a negative energy balance and may change body fat distribution, it is possible that an increase in muscle mass after resistance training may be a key mediator leading to a better metabolic control.
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It has also been recently shown that resistance training has considerable effects on reducing visceral fat and the inflammatory response across a broad spectrum of intensity ranges.

So whether you train in a more typical hypertrophy specific manner, or a use a protocol geared towards maximal strength, both have benefits in protecting the body against excessive inflammation.

Whatever your personal taste in fitness, make sure you flavour it with some variety of iron.

References:

Strasser, B., Arvandi, M. and Siebert, U. (2012), Resistance training, visceral obesity and inflammatory response: a review of the evidence. Obesity Reviews, 13: 578–591. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.00988.x

Çakir-Atabek, Hayriye et al. (2010), Effects of Different Resistance Training Intensity on Indices of Oxidative Stress. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24 (9): 2491-2497 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181ddb111