Exercise, No Matter How Distributed, Tied to Better Fat Deposition Profiles

TUESDAY, Feb. 27, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Time spent in physical activity, whether regularly evenly distributed or concentrated into a few days per week, is effective for improving fat deposition profiles, according to a study published online Feb. 20 in Obesity.

Lubi Lei, from Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, and colleagues examined the association between physical activity patterns and abdominal and general adiposity using data from 9,629 participants (20 to 59 years) in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011 to 2018).

The researchers found that 8.2 percent of participants reported the weekend warrior (WW) pattern (physical activity concentrated in one or two days) and 36.9 percent reported the regularly active (RA) pattern. Both the WW and RA groups had lower dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry-measured abdominal adiposity (WW: β, −0.24; RA: −0.18), waist circumference (WW: β, −1.94; RA: −1.31), whole-body fat mass (WW: β, −0.16; RA: −0.11), and body mass index (WW: β, −0.78; RA: −0.47) compared with inactive participants.

"Guideline-recommended total physical activity time that is distributed evenly or concentrated into one or two days per week both could be effective for improving fat deposition profiles," the authors write. "The WW pattern is worth promoting in individuals who cannot meet the recommended frequency in current guidelines."

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