Glucose levels decreased with high-intensity exercise; waist shrinkage same for all intensities

Reductions in abdominal obesity were similar in patients who exercised for fixed amounts of time at different levels of intensity, but significantly greater than non-exercise controls, Dr. Robert Ross and co-authors at the Queen’s University School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Kingston, Ontario, reported.

In a study of 300 abdominally obese adults, reductions in waist circumference were greater in all three exercise groups — low-amount, low-intensity (-3.9 cm; p < .001); high-amount, low-intensity (-4.6 cm; p < .001); and high-amount, high intensity (-4.6 cm; p < .001) — than in controls, but did not significantly differ between groups. However, 2-hour reductions in glucose level were significantly higher in the high-amount, high-intensity exercise group (-0.7 mmol/L; p = .027) compared with the controls than in all other groups, the investigators reported.

The study results are “encouraging and provide treatment options for clinicians who seek lifestyle-based strategies for reducing abdominal obesity in adults at increased health risk,” Dr. Ross and his colleagues wrote in the paper.

Read the full article at: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M14-1189 .

Ads