Effect of Moderate Swimming Exercise on Weight Gain in High Fat Diet Rats

Obesity is one of the most common problems in the world. Imbalance between energy consumption and expenditure is a main factor in weight disorder. Exercise helps losing weight by increasing energy expenditure and modulation of the energy intake. The present study examined protective effects of daily moderate aerobic exercise on preventing weight gain in high fat diet rats.
Male wistar rats weighing 200 ± 20 grams were randomly divided into 4 groups of five rats as follow: Normal (cont), Normal and exercise (Ex), sedentary and high fat diet (HFD/sed) and exercise and high fat diet (HFD/Ex). High fat diet (HFD) was made by adding 10% animal oil to the standard rodent chow. Exercise protocol consisted of swimming for 1 hr/day, 5 days/week for a period of 8 weeks. Weight gain was calculated according to weight of each rat in the initiation of exercise and food intake was measured in a certain day each week.
Moderate swimming exercise increased the food intake in control group, which was significant in the first (P = 001), third, fourth, fifth (P = .05) and eighth weeks (P = 001). Moderate swimming exercise decreased the food intake in HFD/Ex group, which was significant in the first and third weeks (P = .001). HFD decreased the food intake in the first, second, third, (P = .001) fourth and fifth weeks (P = .05) in comparison with the control group. There was a gradual increment of weight gain in all groups during the experiment without any significant difference.
Findings of this study indicated that moderate swimming exercise without any calorie restrictions was not sufficient to prevent weight gain.