Exercise benefits people with type 2 diabetes even if they don’t make any other lifestyle or diet changes, a new study says.

Dutch researchers conducted MRI exams of 12 patients with diabetes before and after they did six months of moderate-intensity exercise. Each week, the participants, who were an average age of 46, exercised between three and a half and six hours a week during two endurance and two resistance training sessions.

There were no changes in the participants’ heart function at the end of the exercise program. But they did have significant decreases in the amount of fat in the abdomen, liver and around the heart, all of which have been shown to be associated with increased risk of heart disease.

These exercise-related fat reductions in the liver are particularly important to people with type 2 diabetes, many of whom are overweight or obese.

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