effects of resistance and aerobic exercise training or education associated with a dietetic program on visfatin concentrations and body composition in overweight and obese women

Background: obesity, as a chronic disease, is becoming increasingly prevalent especially among women. objectives: the purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of resistance training (rt), concurrent resistance training and aerobic training (rt + at) on visfatin concentrations and body composition in overweight and obese women. methods: an eight-week pretest-posttest design with two experimental exercising groups and one control group was used. 45 overweight and obese women were randomized into resistance training (rt), concurrent resistance and aerobic training (rt + at) or an education-only groups (edu). all participants received a dietary and education/counselling intervention. however, only the rt and rt + at group participated in the eight-week exercise training. results: repeated measures analysis showed that visfatin was significantly decreased by 8.5% in the rt (p = 0.02) and 29.2% in the rt + at (p < 0.001), but not in edu (3.7%; p = 0.22). bmi was decreased in the rt (6.8%; p < 0.001), rt + at (8.1%; p < 0.001) and edu (4.4%; p < 0.001), while bf% decreased in the rt (6.9%; p = 0.001), rt + at (13.1%; p= 0.001), and edu (4.9%; p = 0.020). whr was decreased in the rt (2.4%; p = 0.001), in the rt + at (4.2%; p = 0.002) and edu (2.5%; p = 0.02). vo2max (ml.kg^-1.min^-1) increased in the rt (16.3%; p = 0.004), rt + at (37.7%; p = 0.001), but not in edu (7.2%; p = 0.72). the absolute value of vo2max (l.min^-1) also significantly increased in rt + at (0.25%; p < 0.05) compared to baseline, but did not differ between the groups. conclusions: while rt and education-alone improved body composition and aerobic capacity, structured regular exercise incorporating both rt and at may be required to improve visfatin and vo2max in overweight and obese females.