Research

Energy balance

Regular moderate-intensity exercise (approx. 200 min/week) significantly reduces total body fat and intra-abdominal fat in sedentary, overweight postmenopausal women without caloric restriction.

To lose body fat, aim for about 3.5 days of moderate exercise per week, totaling around 200 minutes. You do not need to change your diet to see results, though maintaining your usual intake is key. Start with shorter, easier sessions and gradually increase the duration and intensity over the first two months to build consistency.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Women who exercised for more than 195 min/wk (highly active) lost 4.2% of total body fat compared with losses of 2.4% among intermediate-activity exercisers... and 0.4% among the control group... A similar trend of greater body-fat loss with increasing cardiorespiratory fitness level was also observed.
Melinda L. Irwin et al. · JAMA · 2003

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with a large sample size (N=173) and long duration (12 months), though adherence was self-reported for home exercise.

Source

Effect of Exercise on Total and Intra-abdominal Body Fat in Postmenopausal Women

Melinda L. Irwin et al. · JAMA · 2003

DOI 10.1001/jama.289.3.323

rct · n=173Cited 514×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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