Visceral fat is the kind that accumulates in the abdominal region and is associated with highly inflammatory disease-related risk. A study had individuals exercise¹ 40 minutes twice a week for one year following a period of weight loss. This small amount of exercise completely prevented reaccumulating the high disease risk fat. The researchers found that aerobic exercise and resistance training were equally effective for this purpose.

“What we found was that those who continued exercising, despite modest weight regains, regained zero percent visceral fat a year after they lost the weight,” said lead researcher Gary Hunter. “But those who stopped exercising, and those who weren't put on any exercise regimen at all, averaged about a 33 percent increase in visceral fat. Because other studies have reported that much longer training durations of 60 minutes a day are necessary to prevent weight regain, it is not too surprising that weight regain was not totally prevented in this study. It is encouraging, however, that this relatively small amount of exercise was sufficient to prevent visceral fat gain.”

It is of course quite nice if people can exercise enough to keep their body weight stable at a lower weight. However, this study shows that even some exercise can be highly protective.