Big gain

Obese teens who exercise regularly will benefit, even if they don't lose weight as a result. That's the conclusion of a study by the University of Western Australia in Crawley, Australia, published in the May 19, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. As part of the study, 39 teenagers exercised for 1 hour three times a week to determine the effect on the health of their arteries.

After 8 weeks, during which the participants' diets remained unchanged, the 19 teenagers in the group who are obese were shown to have arteries that were just as healthy as those of the 20 participants who are lean. Although the obese youngsters did not lose weight, researchers "found a decrease in the percentage of body fat, particularly from the worst place to have fat, which is the viscera, around the internal organs," said lead researcher Daniel J. Green, PhD. "We found a decrease in abdominal obesity in this group. And the reason that they did lose body fat is that their lean muscle mass went up. So we were really seeing a very beneficial change in the composition of the body, without changes in gross measures like body weight."

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