Being a party animal can make you thinner and prevent heart disease, new research shows
- Researchers in China discovered that dancing can lead to sustainable weight loss
- This could reduce obesity rates and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes
- Read more news about fitness and healthy habits on our brand new wellness page
Cameron Diaz recently revealed that one of her favorite ways to sweat is by dancing naked.
And it turns out that hitting the dance floor – clothed or not – can help you lose weight and prevent problems like high blood pressure and heart attack.
The 50-year-old revealed last year that she takes some inspiration from her Charlie’s Angels character, Natalie, and loves to perform spontaneous dance routines in her home, sometimes without clothes.
“I don’t think enough people realize that you can do a lot of things in a small space,” she said E! News. “It’s really great to just put on your headphones, put on a playlist and dance as hard as you can for 15 minutes.”
“Then you just take a shower and start your day.”
And researchers in China have revealed there could be scientific benefits to this.
Cameron Diaz, 50, recently revealed that dancing is one of her favorite workouts, similar to her character Natalie from Charlie’s Angels
Dancing has been shown to lead to weight loss and improve mobility and cognition
In a review published in the magazine on Wednesday PLOS Oneresearchers from Hunan University evaluated 646 overweight and obese adults in 10 different studies.
They found that regular dancing for at least three months improved body composition by lowering body mass index (BMI) and fat, and reducing waist circumference in obese participants.
They also showed that more creative dances such as jazz and hip hop led to greater fat loss compared to more traditional dances such as ballet and ballroom dancing.
By reducing obesity, which affects more than a third of Americans, the researchers noted that dancing could reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.
Yaya Zhang, author of the study and PhD candidate at Hunan University, said: ‘Dance is effective in fat loss in overweight and obese people, and significantly improves body composition and morphology.’
‘Because of its high efficiency and greater sense of pleasure, dance can be a useful training intervention for fat loss.’
‘As a form of physical activity that integrates exercise, entertainment and sociality, dance has innate benefits in promoting exercise motivation.’
The team noted that while similar fat loss was observed with aerobic exercise, resistance training and high-intensity interval training, dance had an advantage in reducing body fat percentage because it is a full-body exercise and is less likely to cause fatigue.
Therefore, it is much easier to maintain than other forms of exercise.
The team noted that it may be especially effective for people under 45 to prevent obesity-related diseases later in life.
A 2018 study also found that exercise can be a useful form of exercise because it helped older women improve their balance and cognition.
Exercise remains one of the leading treatments for obesity, but maintaining long-term exercise habits is no easy task.
The researchers believe that dance can be a fun and accessible way to solve this problem.
The team noted that more research is needed on this topic.