Getting down is a great way for people to shed pounds: study

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

Getting on the dancefloor is a good way for overweight people to shed the pounds, new research has shown

Boogieing the night away produces meaningful improvements on body mass, waist circumference, fat and fat mass in people who are overweight or obese.

Dance was also seen to improve blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, physical fitness, cognitive disorders, and mental health.

It can also help with various other health conditions such as diabetes, gallstones, hypertension, and cardiovascular ailments.

Exercise remains one of the main treatments for the condition but sustaining long-term exercise habits is no easy task.

The researchers believe that dance is an ideal form of sustainable exercise to solve this issue as it is a sociable and entertaining way of exercising that participants will enjoy.

Yaya Zhang, a PhD student at Hunan University, China, said: “Dance is effective on fat loss in people with overweight and obesity, and has a significant improvement on body composition and morphology.

“For its high efficiency and greater sense of enjoyment, dance can be a beneficial exercise intervention for fat loss.

“As a form of physical activity that integrates exercise, entertainment, and sociality, dance possesses innate advantages in fostering motivation for exercise.

"Duration lasting for more than three months, along with creative dance forms, is more conducive to achieving clinical objectives related to improvements in body composition.

"Simultaneously with fat loss, dance preserves and enhances the body morphology of the participants.

"Moreover, dance is particularly well-suited for the young population, those under 45."

To get their results, published in the journal PLoS ONE, the team studied data from 646 participants with overweight and obesity across ten different studies.

They found that dance is very effective for improving body composition and showed that more creative dance types had the most pronounced body composition improvement when compared with traditional dance.

Improvements were also found in overweight children and patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Although similar fat loss was seen in aerobic exercise, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training, dance had an advantage in reducing fat percentage as it is a full-body exercise and is less prone to causing fatigue.

Therefore, it is much easier to sustain than other forms of exercise.

The team notes that much more research is needed on the topic, but they can confidently conclude that dance is very effective for weight loss.