Here's how to get rid of your beer bellies

Washington: A new study has revealed that healthy men who did twenty minutes of daily weight training had less of an increase in age-related abdominal fat compared with men who spent the same amount of time doing aerobic activities.

The study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that combining weight training and aerobic activity led to the most optimal results.

Lead author Rania Mekary, a researcher in HSPH's Department of Nutrition, said that because aging is associated with sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass, relying on body weight alone is insufficient for the study of healthy aging and measuring waist circumference is a better indicator of healthy body composition among older adults, while engaging in resistance training or, ideally, combining it with aerobic exercise could help older adults lessen abdominal fat while increasing or preserving muscle mass.

The study found that those who increased the amount of time spent in weight training by 20 minutes a day had less gain in their waistline (-0.67 cm) compared with men who similarly increased the amount of time they spent on moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise (-0.33 cm), and yard work or stair climbing (-0.16 cm). Those who increased their sedentary behaviors, such as TV watching, had a larger gain in their waistline.

The study was published online in Obesity.