Exercise training‐induced visceral fat loss in obese women: The role of training intensity and modality

Abstract

Visceral fat loss in response to four‐cycle ergometer training regimens with explicit differences in exercise intensity and modality was compared. Fifty‐nine obese young women (body fat percentage ≥ 30%) were randomized to a 12‐week intervention consisting of either all‐out sprint interval training (SITall‐out, n = 11); supramaximal SIT (SIT120, 120% trueV˙O2peak, n = 12); high‐intensity interval training (HIIT90, 90% trueV˙O2peak, n = 12), moderate‐intensity continuous training (MICT, 60% trueV˙O2peak, n = 11), or no training (CON, n = 13). The total work done per training session in SIT120, HIIT90, and MICT was confined to 200 kJ, while it was deliberately lower in SITall‐out. The abdominal visceral fat area (AVFA) was measured through computed tomography scans. The whole‐body and regional fat mass were assessed through dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry. Pre‐, post‐, and 3‐hour post‐exercise serum growth hormone (GH), and epinephrine (EPI) were measured during selected training sessions. Following the intervention, similar reductions in whole‐body and regional fat mass were found in all intervention groups, while the reductions in AVFA resulting from SITall‐out, SIT120, and HIIT90 (>15 cm2) were greater in comparison with MICT (<3.5 cm2, P < .05). The AVFA reductions among the SITs and HIIT groups were similar, and it was concomitant with the similar exercise‐induced releases of serum GH and EPI. CON variables were unchanged. These findings suggest that visceral fat loss induced by interval training at or above 90% trueV˙O2peak appeared unresponsive to the change in training intensity. Nonetheless, SITall‐out is still the most time‐efficient strategy among the four exercise‐training regimes for controlling visceral obesity.

Post-exercise Effects and Long-Term Training Adaptations of Hormone Sensitive Lipase Lipolysis Induced by High-Intensity Interval Training in Adipose Tissue of Mice

“…Since visceral fat accumulation is a risk factor for a number of metabolic diseases, researchers have also observed the effectiveness of HIIT and MICT in reducing visceral fat in human trials. Some human studies found that HIIT reduced visceral fat similarly to MICT (Zhang et al, 2017;Tong et al, 2018), while others showed that HIIT can reduce more visceral fat (Maillard et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2020). Animal studies have shown similar results.…”

“…The study design was shown in Figure 1. Since it is wellknown that the distribution of α and β 3 ARs, which receive catecholamine lipolysis signal, is not exactly same between sexes (Zouhal et al, 2013), and most of our previous HIIT human studies involved young women (Zhang et al, 2017(Zhang et al, , 2020, for maintaining research continuity, female C57Bl/6 mice (4 weeks old, Vital River Laboratories) were selected as animal models. Mice were housed, one per cage, under controlled temperature conditions (20-24°C) with a 12 h light/ dark cycle.…”

Physiological Responses to Low-Volume Interval Training in Women

“… Studies were conducted in women who were classified as healthy [ 10 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 52 , 54 , 65 , 69 – 72 , 75 , 79 , 161 ], with overweight/obesity [ 44 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 55 , 60 – 63 , 66 , 67 , 73 , 76 , 100 , 110 , 121 , 138 , 162 , 164 , 167 , 168 ] and/or type 2 diabetes [ 100 , 162 ]. For transparency, the same cohort of women was examined in the following pairs of references: [ 50 , 121 ] and [ 73 , 138 ].…”

Cardiac autonomic disturbance following sprint-interval exercise in untrained young males: Does exercise volume matter?

“… 1 Such specific training regimens have been demonstrated effective to induce energetic adaptation and fat loss in both healthy and obese people, and are generally considered as time-efficient non-pharmacological strategies for promoting cardiovascular and metabolic health. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 …”