A twice-weekly strength-training regimen slows the accumulation of visceral fat, researchers reported last week in Phoenix, Arizona at the American Heart Association's 46th annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Dr. Kathryn H. Schmitz of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues, randomly assigned 164 women between 25 and 44 who were overweight or obese into two groups. One group received standard care in which they were given AHA brochures on diet and instructions to exercise moderately to vigorously 30 minutes on most days of the week. The second study group received strength training under the supervision of a certified professional.

At the beginning of the study, all of the women underwent CT scans of the abdominal area to measure visceral fat, fat surrounding the abdominal organs. CT scans were repeated two years later.

All of the patients were instructed to avoid changes in diet that would cause an increase or decrease in weight. The women were further stratified into two age groups -- those between 25 and 34 years of age and those between 35 and 44 -- and by percentage of body fat.

"Women performed resistance exercise training, with increases in small increments," Schmitz explained. "We used all the large muscles, the quads and hamstrings, the pecs and the upper and lower back. We threw in the deltoids, biceps and triceps because it felt funny not to, but they weren't really important in what we were studying...This program wasn't just a pink wave of the hand. This was really 'pumping iron,"' she added.

After two years, there was no difference in body weight between any of the groups, but visceral fat increased by only 6.3 percent in the strength-training group compared with an increase of 20.1 percent in the control group.

Visceral fat is associated with metabolic changes linked to heart disease, Schmitz pointed out.

"A recommendation to exercise vigorously three times a week is ineffective if people aren't doing it," she continued. "Here's the challenge: we don't know if this is better than walking two times a week, but a lot of people aren't walking. We do know that anything is better than nothing."