The research included 380 people in Hong Kong who participated in either a 12-week tai chi program, a regular exercise program, or no intervention. Compared with those not participating in an activity, people in the tai chi and conventional exercise programs dropped centimeters off their waists after the three months of the intervention and sustained the reduction more than six months later. “Our study suggests that tai chi can be an effective alternative to conventional exercise in the management of central obesity,” says the lead study author, Parco Siu, PhD, an associate professor and the head of the division of kinesiology at the school of public health and the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Central obesity (a high distribution of fat around the midsection and abdomen) carries health risks even among people with an otherwise normal body weight or BMI. This is particularly true for women after menopause, who have higher mortality rates from heart disease, cancer, and other causes even if their BMIs is in the normal weight range, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in July 2019. RELATED: Tai Chi Beats Stretching and Conventional Exercise in Reducing Fall Risk for the Elderly
Regular Tai Chi Reduced Waists Slightly More Than More Traditional Workouts
For the new study, the researchers started with a group of 543 participants who were Chinese, at least 50 years old, and had what’s known as central obesity — defined among Chinese people as a waist circumference of at least 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) in men and 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) in women, the researchers noted in the study. Most of them were overweight or obese and lacked a regular workout routine, but none of them had physical disabilities or diseases that limited their mobility. Researchers randomly assigned the participants to join three weekly hourlong, instructor-led sessions of tai chi or conventional exercise classes for 12 weeks, or to join a control group that didn’t do any classes. In the tai chi group, classes followed the yang style of practice, which consists of a series of slow continuous movements designed to improve balance, strength, and flexibility. Conventional group exercise classes included brisk walking and muscle strengthening activities, such as arm curls, arm raises, shoulder presses, squats, and heel raises. Both tai chi and conventional exercise classes helped people slim their waistlines. After 12 weeks of classes, people in the tai chi group reduced their waist circumference by an average of 1.8 centimeters (0.7 inches) more than the control group, while conventional exercise resulted in a 1.3 centimeter (0.5 inch) larger reduction. After 38 weeks (six months after the group classes ended), the tai chi group had dropped 4.3 centimeters more from their waistline circumference than the control group since the start of the study; the other exercisers dropped an average of 3.6 centimeters more than the control group. “This is good news for middle-aged and older adults who have central obesity but may be averse to conventional exercise due to preference or limited mobility,” Dr. Siu says. There’s one main caveat to the results. About 30 percent of the people in the study dropped out before the end of follow-up. The analysis after the 12-week interventions included 427 people; and the analysis after 38 weeks included 380 people. It’s possible that the group of people who stuck with the tai chi and exercise programs had better outcomes than the participants who quit early. RELATED: How to Find the Exercise Routine That’s Right for You, and Stick With It
Other Research Has Hinted Tai Chi Is Good for Waistlines
Previous studies have also linked tai chi to reduced waist circumference in older adults. An older study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found that a group of women older than 60 achieved a larger reduction in waist circumference when they practiced tai chi and followed a heart-healthy diet than they did with the diet alone. More recently, a study published in October 2019 in Medicine found that adults over 60 who practiced tai chi had significantly larger reductions in waist and hip circumference and body weight after six years than their counterparts who didn’t practice tai chi. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ most recent Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, published in JAMA in 2018, stop short of recommending tai chi, citing a lack of robust evidence of its benefits. Similarly, physical activity guidelines from the World Health Organization released in 2020 don’t specifically recommend tai chi. The omission of tai chi from guidelines may be mainly because previous studies were too small or didn’t control for potentially confounding variables, according to the authors of the new study on waist circumference. The new research is a randomized controlled trial (the gold-standard for research) and followed up with participants several months after the intervention to see if the benefits stuck, making the research higher-quality evidence than previous work. Results from this new study suggest that tai chi is indeed worth recommending, especially for people who are older, out of shape, or struggling to become more active, says Jean-Michel Brismée, ScD, a physical therapist and a professor at the center for rehabilitation research at the School of Health Professions at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. “Tai chi is a gentle, low-impact activity that is commonly well tolerated by middle-aged and older adults who may not be able to tolerate the conventional exercises,” says Dr. Brismée, who wasn’t involved in the new study. That tai chi helped reduce abdominal fat is particularly promising. Abdominal fat can be more dangerous than fat that accumulates elsewhere in the body, Brismée says. It’s the type of fat that has been linked to overactivity of the body’s stress response mechanisms, which raise blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and cardiac risk. RELATED: The Best Ways to Beat Menopausal Belly Fat
Few Contraindications or Risks With Tai Chi
For people who have never tried tai chi before, group classes like the ones done in the study may be the best bet, Brismée suggests. It can take some time to learn the breathing and postures in the routines and develop fluidity. “The great news is that it does not require any equipment, and most people can practice tai chi, regardless of age or fitness level,” Brismée says. Ultimately, it may not be for everyone, but there aren’t any risks that would make it unsafe for most people to give it a try, says Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, an associate professor of nutritional medicine and the director of the Sleep Center of Excellence at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. Physical activity — whether it’s tai chi or another type of exercise — can help with weight loss and trimming the waistline in several ways, says Dr. St-Onge, whose research focuses on how lifestyle influences cardio-metabolic risk factors; she was not involved in the new research. For starters, people who are busy walking or running or doing tai chi aren’t snacking during that time, so it can help reduce calorie intake, St-Onge says. Exercise can also be a mood booster and help create a mindset that promotes healthier behavior. And, of course, burning calories aids weight loss. “There is no special way to reduce belly fat,” St-Onge says. “Weight loss will come from negative energy balance and will come off all regions of the body.”
