Can lifting weights change where you lose belly fat?
Weight-loss diet alone or combined with resistance training induces different regional visceral fat changes in obese women
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When overweight women ate less to lose weight, they lost belly fat. Adding weightlifting didn’t make them lose more total belly fat — but it changed where the fat came off.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 560 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When overweight women ate less to lose weight, they lost belly fat. Adding weightlifting didn’t make them lose more total belly fat — but it changed where the fat came off.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 560 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Idoate F, Ibañez J, Gorostiaga EM, García-Unciti M, Martínez-Labari C, Izquierdo M
Related Content
Claims (5)
When obese women between 40 and 60 lose weight, the amount of fat lost from different areas of the abdomen is similar, whether or not they do resistance training.
In obese women aged 40–60, combining a calorie-restricted diet with resistance training changes where body fat is lost, shifting the greatest reduction from the lower abdomen to the upper abdomen. This shift does not occur with diet alone, suggesting resistance training influences the location of fat loss regardless of how much total fat is lost.
In women aged 40–60 with obesity, a single MRI scan at the L2-L3 spine level is the most accurate way to estimate total fat around internal organs, whether or not they lose weight or do resistance training.
When obese women aged 40–60 lose weight by eating fewer calories without exercise, the most fat loss occurs around the lower spine (L5-S1). But when they add resistance training, fat loss is more evenly distributed across the body.
For obese women between 40 and 60 years old, losing visceral fat over 16 weeks through a reduced-calorie diet happens at the same rate whether or not they do resistance training. Adding resistance training does not lead to more visceral fat loss than dieting alone.