This weight-loss thing is a gimmick. The Zone Diet board is full of countless middle-aged non-exercisers (or walkers) who have the pictures and data to prove they are half of their former size. Staying away from refined carbohydrate is step one if you need to loose weight.
Someone with metabolic syndrome who starts "exercising" and still eats like crap will merely become a somewhat thinner person, but still shaped like a pear.
My oldest daughter ran cross-country in high school and she and I both ran a lot of 5K's together. One of them also was a 10K qualifier that a lot of the better local runners showed up for. I was amazed at a how many of the older guys (50+) who could turn really respectable times on 6.2miles still had noticeable paunches. Diet is the foundation.