Effects of Aerobic Training With No Caloric Restriction on Serum Resistin and Lipid Profile in Inactive Overweight Women

ntroduction: Obesity is a major risk factor for inflammation and cardiovascular diseases. We tried to assess whether 12 weeks of aerobic exercises affect serum resistin level and lipid profile in overweight females or not.

For this purpose, 32 non-trained adult females with the mean age of 38 ± 7 years old and body mass index (BMI) of 32 ± 3 kg/m2 were randomly assigned to aerobic exercise (n=16) and control (n=16) groups. Twelve weeks of aerobic exercise program including 3 sessions weekly at 60-75% of maximum heart rate was considered. Fasting serum resistin level, lipid profile (total cholesterol [TC], low-density lipoprotein [LDL] and high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, and triglyceride [TG]), and anthropometric indexes were measured and compared between the two groups before and after training.

Serum resistin, lipid profile markers, and anthropometrical indexes were not significantly different at baseline between the two groups (P > 0.05). TG, TC, LDL, and serum resistin did not change significantly after the intervention in the exercise group (P > 0.05). However, a significant increase in HDL (exercise: 46.3 ± 9.6 vs. 51.4 ± 8.5, P = 0.011; control: 45.8 ± 7.9 vs. 46.8 ± 6.9 P = 0.326) and a significant decrease in LDL/HDL ratio (exercise: 2.94 ± 0.12 vs. 2.47 ± 0.19, P = 0.019; control: 3.14 ± 0.23 vs. 3.18 ± 0.63, P = 0.265) were observed after the intervention. Other variables in the control group remained unchanged.

Aerobic exercises had no impacts on the inflammatory profile but could improve lipid profile with an emphasis on HDL in adult obese women.