The golden opportunity of puberty period in reducing the body fat percentage of obese boys in effect aerobic exercise and a low-calorie diet

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aerobic trianing and low-calorie diet on GH, testosterone and body composition of obese boys during puberty.

Methods & Materials:

 In this semi-experimental research, 53 subjects (12-17 years old) based on Puberty were placed in two groups TS2.3(n=28,BMI=29.61+4.7kg/m2) and TS4.5(n=25, BMI=30.54+3.7kg/m2). Then, each group was randomly divided into three subgroup: aerobic training, diet and control. The aerobic training group ran for 3 months, 3 times a week for 20-40 minutes with an intensity of 60-85% MHR. For the diet group, a low-energy food plan(500 to 1000 kilocalories less than daily requirement) was prescribed by a nutritionist. puberty was measured by Tanner's scale, body composition with Inbody3.0, GH and testosterone were measured by ELISA method. Data analysis was done by Shapiro-Wilk tests, t–test, two-way ANOVA or their non-parametric equivalent in SPSS version-24.

The results showed that GH changes were not significant. The interactive effect of group and puberty in increasing testosterone was seen only in aerobic training group(p=0.01); decrease in body fat percentage was seen in two intervention groups; But it was more in diet group(p=0.001). Also, BMI reduction in two intervention groups was more at the TS4,5(p=0.04).

The positive result of the intervention of aerobic training and low-calorie diet was the reduction of body fat percentage, which indicates the dynamics of puberty with its rapid changes; Therefore, it is better for obese boys to seize the golden opportunity of puberty especially at the end to reach the desirable weight.