In Reply: We agree with Dr Otters and colleagues
that the weight lost after 12 months of moderately intense exercise was modest,
albeit statistically significant. We also found, however, that the loss of
intra-abdominal body fat, measured by computed tomography, was clinically
significant and dose-dependent. We concluded that previously sedentary postmenopausal
women who exercised for approximately 200 min/wk lost 6.9% of their intra-abdominal
fat while maintaining their energy intake. This amount of exercise is similar
to current national recommendations of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity
on most days of the week.1 Women who exercised
less than the recommended amount also experienced significant losses in intra-abdominal
body fat (a loss of 3.4% and 5.9% in women exercising ≤135 min/wk and 136-195
min/wk, respectively).