Impact of a short-term period of intensive aerobic exercise training and green tea consumption on body composition and inflammatory parameters in sedentary young men

Intensive, long-term activity can damage the immunity system and cause inflammation. So, a natural anti-inflammatory intermediate like green tea has attracted the interests. The objective of the present study was to examine the impact of green tea consumption and intensive aerobic exercise training on body composition, creatine phosphokinase and lactate dehydrogenase parameters in sedentary young men.

Thirty-eight sedentary young men (age: 19.87±1.63 years) were participated in study and were randomly divided into four groups: green tea + aerobic training, aerobic training, green tea, and control. The subjects took three mg green tea or placebo a day with their meals. Also, green tea + aerobic training and aerobic training groups had aerobic training with 55-85% of maximum heart beat rate three sessions a week for one month. Blood samples were taken before and after four weeks and 24 hours after El-Estado test and their creatine phosphokinase and lactate dehydrogenase were measured. Data were analyzed with t-paired test and covariance test.

It was revealed that fat percentage was significantly lower in green tea group (p < 0.001) but, no significance was observed in other variables.

It seems that green tea consumption with regular, short aerobic activities can favorably affect subcutaneous fat percentage.