International Business Department           Liu Bojia           September 18, 2024

  Maintaining a reasonable amount of exercise on a daily basis can bring many benefits to the body, such as helping to combat anxiety, slowing down the aging of the brain, and improving the body's aerobic metabolism overall. But for exercise to lose weight this matter, the scientific community is still controversial, most studies have found that exercise alone in fact, the role of weight loss is very small, this is because the body in the detection of exercise consumes too much energy, will drive the individual to actively consume more food, or to reduce other physiological processes consumed by the energy, so exercise to lose weight is not as efficient as imagined.

  But if you have a lot of belly fat but give up exercising because it doesn't lose much weight, you're missing out on a major benefit. According to a new study in Nature Metabolism, researchers at the University of Michigan have found that people who have a habit of exercising have healthier adipose tissue on their bodies compared to those who don't exercise, and in particular, subcutaneous adipose tissue has a greater capacity to store fat. This characteristic reduces the chances of fat accumulating around organs and reduces fat damage to organs.

  In overweight or obese people, the accumulation of abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (aSAT) is the most obvious   feature, which is the bulging belly we see. And the morphology of aSAT has been associated with abnormal metabolic   function and insulin resistance, among other complications. Specifically, aSAT with extracellular matrix fibrosis, capillary thinning, or increased pro-inflammatory macrophages reduces the ability to store fat, allowing fatty acids to escape into the circulatory system and triggering fat accumulation in other organs and systemic inflammation.

  Previous studies have found that exercise can improve aSAT morphology despite its limited role in fat reduction. However, much remains unclear about the specific effects of exercise on aSAT. For this reason, the authors recruited a group of volunteers to participate in the trial, and after screening 32 people entered the final stage and were divided into two groups, 16 of whom had no exercise habits and 16 of whom had been exercising for a long time, with an average duration of 11 years. In addition, the two groups of volunteers had similar levels of obesity, body fat percentage, and body mass index (BMI).

  By analysing the aSAT of the volunteers in both groups, the authors found that exercise improves aSAT in a number of ways, including morphological structure, proteome, and tissue remodelling capacity. aSAT in individuals who exercise consistently, compared to those who do not exercise at all, shows adaptations to exercise, such as an increase in capillarogenesis and an elevated density of mitochondria, which are changes that can help with oxygenation and nutrient delivery to adipose tissues, promote adipose production and reduce inflammation and fibrosis. Correspondingly, PRKG1/2, a key protein in the regulation of angiogenesis, is significantly enriched in aSAT.

  These advantages also conferred a more robust fat storage capacity to aSAT in exercising individuals. The authors point out that a localised increase in fat storage capacity does not equate to an increase in total body fat; total fat only rises when an individual's energy intake is excessive. And when all the fat is held under the skin in the abdomen, it is more difficult to accumulate fat around the heart and liver as a way to reduce the risk of fatty liver and cardiovascular disease.

  For the overweight or obese group, exercise may not change the appearance, but it helps reduce the harmful effects of fat from within. And to better achieve weight loss goals, you can choose to reduce your total energy intake sensibly, or adhere to dietary strategies such as the Mediterranean diet or intermittent fasting.