The NuMetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra was launched by Textronics in December 2005, and was named 2006 Sports Product of the Year by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. The garment features electronic sensing technology that is actually integrated right into the knit of the fabric, which picks up the heart's electrical pulse and radios it to a wrist watch via a tiny transmitter in the bra. It offers a new level of comfort and convenience for women wishing to monitor their heart rate while they exercise.

Textronics is currently working to expand the NuMetrex clothing collection to include a heart rate sensing shirt for men which will be released to market this fall. Also in development is a larger size heart rate sensing sports bras for women targeted for release in early 2007.

Virtually everything American society has done for the past 100 years has made it easier for its people to be fatter, said James Sallis, a San Diego State University psychology professor, and others who gathered recently at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting.

"We've built an unhealthy world in a lot of different ways," said Sallis, who was once dubbed an "obesity warrior" by Time magazine.

Sallis contends change will come only when the public demands walkable development, more federal money for parks and bike paths and even a tax on industries that promote sedentary lifestyles (he pointed to video game makers, movie theater chains and even electric Segway scooters).

Proof that people will accept an active lifestyle and walk to parks and shopping if they can is found in the "new urbanism" style of planned communities, the experts contend. They pointed to Denver's Stapleton neighborhood, an enclave of new homes built where the city's old airport used to be.

The neighborhood is a mix of shops, offices, parks, apartments and houses linked by wide sidewalks and meandering bike paths. Architecture varies from single-family homes to rows of brownstones. Tom Gleason, a spokesman for developer Forest City, said the design has been a hit.

"Visceral fat is very bad for you," says Richard N. Bergman, a professor at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "It seems to have a more negative outcome on health than overall fat."

The evidence now is so compelling that some experts suggest it's time to forget about scales and weight loss and focus on waists and "inch loss."

Luckily, visceral fat doesn't appear to be a particularly stubborn enemy. Health experts have discovered that consistent, moderate exercise by itself appears to help the body rid itself of vast amounts of deep abdominal fat — even when the scales show the pounds aren't dropping very fast.

This emerging science carries a message for consumers: Measure your waist circumference. And reduce it if need be. Doing something about that paunch could help save your life.

That is probably the best news about visceral fat: It's not all that hard to lose, and losing even a little might make a big difference in cardiovascular health. Sit-ups and liposuction won't work (sit-ups merely tighten the muscle and liposuction only removes subcutaneous fat), but studies show that regular diet and exercise can lead to a substantial drop. "It's easier than reducing any other fat because the abdominal fat is metabolically very active," Sharma of McMaster University says.

In fact, studies show that people who lose only 10% to 15% of total body weight can still lose up to 30% of their visceral fat — and reap fast, important benefits. A 2001 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that white and black women on a diet-and-exercise program lost 41% and 37% of their visceral fat, respectively, with a total weight loss of about 15%.

Frame is 97 and Sykes is 98.

''I didn't do any exercising ever until I came here," said Sykes, hard at work on the Nu-Step cycling machine. ''The wonderful thing is it makes me feel better. I think it's why I'm still around."

At Dartmouth College a lifetime ago, he played for the tennis team and later in life he was a golfer at the Duxbury Yacht Club. ''But I don't play golf anymore because I can't see where the ball goes."

Frame says the workouts allowed him to regain his strength after heart surgery. And with the strength came a freedom. ''If I wasn't strong enough, I would have had to move into an assisted living situation. Working out has kept me more independent."

But do not ever say these fitness enthusiasts are doing well ''for their age." Just say they are doing well, no matter what their age.

The school project starts with the state's 64,880 middle school students and then calls for an expansion into high schools. By year three, state officials hope to have the project set up in the state’s elementary schools.

Overall, the game is expected to be available to 279,788 public school students statewide.

The statewide project is expected to cost $500,000, with part of the funding coming from PEIA and Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield. Game manufacturer Konami Digital Entertainment in Redwood City, Calif., has agreed to provide $75,000. The state is seeking private funding for the remainder.

Each school is to receive a game console, at least two dance pads and software at a cost of about $740.

The study, from 1994 to 2003, followed 1,740 people ages 65 and older who showed no signs of dementia at the outset. The participants' health was evaluated every two years for six years.

Out of the original pool, 1,185 people were later found to be free of dementia, 77 percent of whom reported exercising three or more times a week; 158 people showed signs of dementia, only 67 percent of whom said they exercised that much. The rest either died or withdrew from the study.

The study could not say if exercise helped prevented dementia altogether, because not all of the participants were followed up to their deaths.

The frequency of dementia was 13 per 1,000 person years for those who said they exercised three or more times a week, compared with 19.7 per 1,000 person years for those who reported exercising less.

The debut issue of Get Active magazine includes features on the life-enhancing powers of exercise, how to begin an exercise regimen, how fitness can boost your finances, how to flex your political muscle, and an interview with Catherine Oxenberg and Casper Van Dien, stars of the Lifetime television reality series, I Married a Princess. In addition, the magazine will provide tips on training, nutrition, gear, and choosing a personal trainer. Every edition of Get Active magazine will also consist of feature stories covering a variety of topics and the magazine will tell the personal stories of health club members who have achieved positive results in their fitness routines.

"There's so much fluctuation in body weight due to fluid that you lose or gain, and that can represent two, three, sometimes four pounds," notes Harry DuVal, Ph.D., associate professor of exercise science and director of the fitness center at the University of Georgia in Athens. "You get all excited, thinking, 'Look what I lost!' and then you go and replenish your fluids and, bingo, you're right back up to where you were -- if not higher -- so you get discouraged."

The scale can also be inaccurate, particularly if you're strength training, because of the change in your muscle mass.

Of course, you've probably heard a million times that muscle weighs more than fat -- but just how much does that affect the number on the scale? "If you're doing a vigorous form of resistance training at any age, you can gain lean muscle mass," says DuVal. "And it takes very little gain in muscle mass to equate to pounds gained. You can still be losing significant body fat, but if you're gaining just a little bit of lean muscle mass, it doesn't show up as a loss on the scale."

Just 132 of the people surveyed said they practiced yoga regularly for at least four years. However, overweight yoga practitioners lost about 5 pounds on average during the 10-year period, while those who did not practice yoga gained an average of 13.5 pounds. People who were normal-weight and regularly practiced yoga gained three fewer pounds during this period of life than those who didn't do yoga (9.5 pounds compared to 12.6 pounds).

Dr. Janine Blackman, the medical director of the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, has another theory: the "mindful" nature of yoga creates a healthier response to stress, which in turn prevents stress-driven eating and lowers stress hormones.

"Middle age is a full time in life," she said. "A better response to this stress can lower cortisol and other stress hormones, which helps physiologically. If cortisol is elevated, you're more likely to have Insulin resistance, which is central to obesity."