Articles : The Effect of Long Term Swimming Training on Body Composition and Leptin Hormone in Obese Middle-Aged Women

Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry 2002;6(2):157-162.

Abstract

The aims of this study is to evaluate the effects of regular swimming exercise on body composition and leptin in obese middle-aged women. In this study, swimming (HRmax 50-75%, 60 min/day, 5 day/week) was performed and 18 subjects were participated for study during 12 weeks, They were divided into two groups, one group as experimental group (n = 9) and the other as control group (n=9). Analytical items were body weight, % body fat, fat mass, BMI and leptin. All data were expressed as mean±standard deviation by using SPSS package program (win 9.0), independent and paired t-test was used to analyze the difference of the pre and post treatment between groups. For all statistics performed statistical significance was set at p<.05. After swimming training, body weight, % body fat, fat mass and BMI were significantly decreased, 2.99 ㎏, 3.86%, 3.39 ㎏, 1.19 ㎏/㎡ (P<.05), respectively. We found that the concentration of leptin was significantly reduced after treatment (4.70 ng/㎖, P<.01). It is concluded that swimming training for 12 weeks affects the body composition and leptin in obese middle-aged women. We recommend that regular swimming training is good for health, in particular prevention and treatment against obesity.