OK, swimsuit season is fast approaching! Yikes!  Spring has arrived, and shedding some fat and inches becomes a greater focus for a lot of us.  Don’t get me wrong, we should be paying attention to these things all the time but, we’ll also grab whatever motivation we can find to do the necessary things!
There’s the “healthy eating” part and the Wild Oats community of bloggers (the “Oaties”) gives us all sorts of smart and helpful information.  There are the great Wild Oats products to weave into your healthy diet!  And, there’s the “healthy lifestyle” part …. and that’s where exercise and physical activity come in!

Remember the post I had about “irisin” , the exercise hormone? You should be excited to get moving with that great information!  A recent study  by Harvard researchers looked at whether  resistance exercise or aerobic exercise was better for trimming waist size and burning fat.  Since abdominal obesity (around the mid-section) is particularly dangerous, reducing waist size is good for us, physically and psychologically!  Oh, and I said “resistance exercise”, NOT “resistance to exercise” (just sayin ….).  Resistance exercise includes things like push-ups, weight lifting,  using stretch bands and various exercise equipment.  Aerobic exercise includes such things as jogging, using a treadmill, bicycling, and moderate intensity exercise classes.

This new study included 10,000 men at or over the age of 40.  They were followed for 12 years, and the study also included “couch potatoes” .  Here’s what they found:

• aerobic exercise resulted in the least weight gain over the 12 year period
• resistance exercise resulted in the smallest waist size expansion over the 12 year period
• a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance exercise gave the best results over the 12 year period (less body fat and trimmer waists).

So, the results indicate that both types of exercise are good for us! Aerobic helps us burn more fat.  Resistance helps keep the waist trimmer. If we are doing neither, well, shame on us.  If we are doing one or the other, hey, thumbs up.  If we are doing both …. two thumbs up!!  Swimsuit season 2015!!  OK, bring it on ….