The effects of concurrent training and calorie restriction on anti-inflammatory adipokines and insulin sensitivity in obese women with fatty liver

Disturbance in the regulation of secretion between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory adipokines can lead to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of concurrent training, calorie restriction and concurrent training+ calorie restriction on the levels of anti-inflammatory adipokines and insulin sensitivity in obese women with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Thirty seven women with non-alcoholic fatty liver were randomly divided into four groups: control (n=9), calorie restriction (n=9), concurrent training (n=9) and concurrent training+ calorie restriction (n=10). Training protocol included combination of aerobic with 40-60 percent of heart rate reserve and resistance training 40-60 percent of 1 repetition maximum (1RM), eight weeks and three sessions per week. The calorie restriction groups, alleviate 400 to 500 kcal/day from total daily calorie intake. Blood samples were taken pre- and post intervention. For statistical analysis, paired samples t-test and analysis of covariance at a significant level of p<0.05 were used. Concurrent training+ calorie restriction significantly increased serum adiponectin and adipolin concentration compared to the caloric restriction and control groups (both, p<0.026) and the insulin sensitivity index compared to the control group (p=0.027). Also, there was a significant increase in serum adiponectin and adipolin concentration and insulin sensitivity index of the concurrent training group compared to the control group (p<0.05). In the calorie restriction group, only the insulin sensitivity index increased significantly compared to the pre-test (p=0.004). It seems that performing concurrent training alone and with calorie restriction is a more effective intervention in increasing anti-inflammatory adipokines and improving insulin sensitivity than calorie restriction alone.