The main reason being overweight is bad for us is that fat tissue is metabolically active, producing hormones and chemicals that harm the cardiovascular and other systems. Fat tissue that accumulates in the midsection is especially active. So it's meaningful that this study showed that exercise, even without weight loss, reduced both waist size (an easy-to-measure indication of abdominal fat) and one of the chemicals produced by fat tissue. Still, this was a small, short study -- an appetizer meant to whet the appetite for more research.

Hardly a day goes by without some new finding about the benefits of keeping active. A number of studies have found that several inflammatory factors decline -- not just one -- when people exercise and lose weight.

But this study and many others underscore that regular exercise, even when you don't lose weight, has health benefits. We're making a big mistake if we use weight loss as the only way to measure our exercise efforts.

________

If in the past due to bras issue, you have seeked for breast augmentation and have ended up with breast implants, you should regularly work out to maintain that. Where some ailments like the acne treatment require medical interventions, musculature issues like bursitis are greatly relieved by tai chi.