Effects of exercise Training Intensity on Metabolic Risk Factors in Abdominally Obese Women

Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry 2010;14(4):219-225.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two walking programs with low- and high-intensity on body fatness and metabolic syndrome risk factors in omen. A total of 46 middle-aged women, who met the ITF criterion for abdominal obesity with waist circumference(WC)≥80 cm, voluntarily participated in the study, and the participants were classified as either control group(n=20) or low-intensity group(n=12, 50% VO2max) or high-intensity group(n=14, 80% VO2max). Exercise duration varied from 40-120 minutes so that both low- and high-intensity groups had the same amount of exercise energy expenditure of 400 kcal each session with a frequency of 3 days per week fur 12 weeks. Body fatness(i.e., WC, body mass index(BMI), percent body fat(%BF)), cardio/respiratory fitness(CRF), and metabolic risk factors (i.e., systolic blood pressure(SBP), diastolic blood pressure(DBP), total cholesterol, triglycerides(TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDLC), and glucose were measured at the baseline and following the exercise program. Group analyses showed significant group differences in changed scores of WC, BMI, %BF, and CRF. Further LSD post-hoc tests revealed that improvements in WC(p=0.016), BM(p<0.001)I, %BF(p=0.012), and CRF(p=0.029) were significantly higher in the low- and high-intensity exercise groups than in the control group, with no significant group differences between the two exercise groups. With respect to metabolic risk factors, the low-intensity exercise group had a significantly higher improvement(p=0.048) in HDLC than either the control or the high-intensity group. In summary, the current findings suggest that 1) a 12-week walking exercise program improved physical fitness and fatness and HDLC levels and 2) compared to high-intensity exercise, low-intensity exercise training would induce greater improvements in those parameters of metabolic risk factors in abdominally-obese women.

Key Words: Metabolic syndrome, Walking exercise, Exercise intensity, Middle-aged women, Risk factor